Ashes 2019: Imposter syndrome long-forgotten, Nathan Lyon closes Australia’s show emphatically once again

Five-hundred Test wickets is now a very realistic goal for the timeless spinner

When Nathan Lyon strode out to the middle of Edgbaston at the day four lunch break, it was to do more than to look at the surface. Yes, nobody in the professional game knows more about the curation of pitches than the man who did it for a living before his astonishing rise to the national team. But this was something different - it was an announcement to those in the opposition dressing that he was ready to rumble whenever the fourth innings arrived.

He never would have done anything remotely like this during the first stage of his career. Then, from 2011 to 2014, he had a real problem with the final stanza. Maybe it was the way he arrived and those who did the job for Australia before him – we all have a bit of impostor syndrome, after all. Ever since a harrowing experience where he couldn’t bowl South Africa out in 2012 at Adelaide, the nerves would show – not dissimilar to Nathan Hauritz before him; not least on that fateful day at Cardiff. It was never bravado he exuded when the job came his way.

In the first 19 opportunities that Lyon had to bowl in the fourth innings after his debut, only 24 wickets came at an average of 36 and – more problematically – a strike rate of 78. He has never taken a bag or won a Test for Australia on the final day. That all changed, once again in Adelaide, in December 2014 when he did get the job done in the first Test played after Philip Hughes’ death. That afternoon he held his nerve against Kohli and co. with seven wickets in a hurry. Since that day, his 19 fourth-innings frolics have netted him 40 scalps at 29, striking at 52. He has routinely been the main man at the end. Sure enough, he was again today.

It’s a very different world that Lyon operates in now as Australia’s most experienced player with 87 caps to his name, but it would only have been natural to have thought this week about when he was cruelly dropped for the opening Test of the 2013 Ashes at Nottingham. The kid who replaced him, Ashton Agar, made 98 and had the national heart swooning.

It’s entirely possible that his career could have ended there and then, or a number of times since. But integral to the story of the now 31-year-old is resilience. For fighting back time and again, Lyon now boasts numbers, his haul of 6/49 – his 15th five-for - taking him to 352 wickets.

Assuming he passes Dennis Lillee’s 355 victims at Lord’s next week, that will leave only a couple of blokes called Warne and McGrath ahead of him for all-time wickets as an Australian Test bowler.

Currently, he has the 24th most wickets in Test cricket and should crack the top 20 this series when overtaking another band of all-time greats. Lyon nearly has 100 more in his column than Graeme Swann, with Lance Gibbs also in his wake.

“He could get plenty,” Tim Paine said when asked how many Lyon could finish with, 500 now a very realistic goal. “He doesn’t seem to have too many niggles or injuries over his career. The ball is coming out as well as ever. He’s a bit the same as Smithy, I feel like every Test match or series they seem to get better which is astonishing at their age. But if you come and watch both of them train you see why they keep improving and keep getting better.”

Nathan Lyon celebrates (Getty)

That stick-to-itiveness of Lyon was also apparent within this match after going wicketless through day two. This was his stage and these days, that doesn’t daunt him one bit. Granted, Jason Roy made it easy for him when inexplicably running down the pitch, but the hard-spun delivery needed to be on target. It was his removal of the Joes before lunch, Denly and Root, which were both classics of the fingerspin genre. In both cases, he had zipped his stock delivery down faster than before, Cameron Bancroft the unflappable catcher at short leg.

After the break, it was time to work over England’s deep bank of southpaws, starting with Ben Stokes. It was destined to take a pearler of a delivery to get him and that’s what Lyon produced from around the wicket, with all the drift and turn that tweakers dream of. Soon thereafter, he had Moeen Ali’s number for the ninth time in the last ten innings, captured with an even more dangerous delivery than the one that did Stokes. That made five. When Stuart Broad was the third left-hander to edge, this time to Steve Smith, he was on a hat-trick.

Nathan Lyon is congratulated by his teammates (Getty)

That didn’t eventuate but it didn’t matter – the game was over now; Lyon was Australia’s day-five matchwinner. “He bowled a bit quicker which he tends to do over here because he doesn't get the bounce he gets in Australia or the turn as consistently,” Paine explained from his perfect vantage point. “He controlled it beautifully and a real threat. He can take day five wickets and when you have a spinner like that it can change a game very quickly.”

Up the other end, Cummins bullied four wickets of his own to make it all ten between the pair. In the case of the quick, he was noticeably inconsistent on Friday but demonstrated clearly why he is the number one ranked bowler in the world. That Pete Siddle didn’t get in on the act is but a quirk – he couldn’t have been any better on the final day. With James Pattinson so impressive in different spells through the match and Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood ready to roll at any point, Australia’s selection strategy has worked a treat.

Ben Stokes reacts after being dismissed by Nathan Lyon (Getty)

Paine acknowledges that it was a momentous win, and it was doubtless was, but is insisting that, in Australian speak, they will be “keeping a lid on” the celebrations. “It’s a huge step in the right direction,” he added. “Tonight will be quite a different feel to most Test wins we’ve had. We’re over here to do something that a lot of teams from Australia have struggled to do. And we realise that if we can do it, it’ll be spoken about for a hell of a long time.” As will the story of the skinny kid from rural New South Wales. And it’s a long way from finished.