‘An unusual selection’: Why selectors dropped Lyon for the first time since 2013

Kingston: The first major sign that Nathan Lyon had been dropped from Australia’s side for the third Test against West Indies was the kick of a soccer ball.

About 90 minutes before the start of play on Saturday (Sunday AEST) at Sabina Park in Jamaica, the 37-year-old was the first Australian player onto the field ahead of warm-ups. He wandered alone across the middle, without his spikes, aimlessly kicking a soccer ball and chatting quietly with support staff.

One member of staff offered a consoling pat on the back to the veteran of 139 Tests and 562 wickets.

When Scott Boland grabbed a tape measure to mark his run-up and began splashing white paint on the ground, Lyon’s fate was effectively sealed. Official confirmation came at the toss, 30 minutes before play, at 4am back in Australia.

Not since Ashton Agar’s surprise debut in the 2013 Ashes has Australia not picked Lyon when he’s been fit and available.

He missed three matches in last year’s Ashes with a calf injury but remained involved on this occasion, helping with warm-ups and even offering to hold Boland’s tape measure as other players started filing onto the field.

Instead of warming his arm up, Lyon passed a rugby ball with other non-playing members of the squad.

This is Australia’s first day-night Test away from home and just the second in the Caribbean after the West Indies hosted Sri Lanka in 2018 in Barbados.

The match is being played with a pink Dukes ball, which behaves differently to the pink Kookaburra used in Australia.

About 10 minutes before play, selector Tony Dodemaide explained Lyon’s shock omission.

Nathan Lyon missed out on selection.Credit: AP

Dodemaide says it was purely based on conditions and how Australia think the pink Dukes ball will behave in this match.

“Obviously, an unusual selection for us,” Dodemaide said. “It’s not something we generally want to do and it’s fair to say it wasn’t front of mind when we got to Sabina Park. It was a conditions-based decision to go in with four quicks.

“[This ball] actually behaves a little differently to the Kookaburra one. It doesn’t go as soft. The Kookaburra one tends to have a trough when it doesn’t move so much in those middle overs. That’s not the case with the Dukes. The history tells us that.

“Based on all of that, we thought that spin would not have a significant part in the game.

“That’s been our lived experience when we’ve been here for the past couple of days. ... We know that’s also very difficult for the batters as well.

“Based on all of that, we thought that spin would not have a significant part in the game. Certainly a difficult one.”

Asked how Lyon took the news, Dodemaide said: “He’s disappointed because he wants to play every game. He’s a great competitor and he believes he can be effective in any conditions. He’s a team man as well and understands the right thing for the team and he’ll do his best to support the guys.

“It’s a one-off. It’s not a reflection on performance for Nathan. It’s simply the best way we think we can win this game.”

However, the decision stood in contrast to the West Indies, who picked left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican in place of quick Anderson Phillip.

“They can do what they want to do,” Dodemaide said. “It’s the best information we’ve got.”

Lyon was informed of the decision on Friday night at a team meeting at the Kingston hotel where the group is staying, just hours after captain Pat Cummins foreshadowed that changes could be forthcoming. Those who saw Lyon on Friday evening say he was in good spirits, however, there is no doubt he will be disappointed to not be playing in Mitchell Starc’s 100th Test.

It is the first time since the 2012 Perth Test against India – when Peter Siddle, Ryan Harris, Starc and Ben Hilfenhaus were selected – that Australia has fielded four specialist quicks.

In the lead-up to the match, the Sabina Park curator joked to Australian players that spinners might as well spend the week at the beach.

Lyon is the fourth-highest wicket-taker in the series with nine at 18.33, but his economy rate of 5.07 is the highest of any bowler.

Australia’s decision to omit not just any spinner, but the nation’s most prolific since Shane Warne, underlines the shifting nature of Test cricket: in the modern game, pace rules.

Boland took 10 wickets in his last match - against India at the SCG in January - and has been bowling with real intensity at every training session on this tour, waiting patiently for his opportunity.

Lyon is a lock to play the first Test of the Ashes in November. He is only 13 days into a fresh two-year contract with Cricket Australia, which will take him through until the 2027 Ashes.

But by the time the pink ball Test in Brisbane rolls around on December 4, the data might suggest otherwise.