Sydney, April 15 (IANS)| Australian spin legend Nathan Lyon feels the Border-Gavaskar series has brought prestige to the Ashes, and beating the legends of the subcontinent is becoming a “big challenge”.
India have outperformed Australia, winning each of the last three Border-Gavaskar Trophy since 2017, the latest being a 2-1 Test win in the four-match series Down Under in 2020/21.
“It’s huge. It’s going to be the same pinnacle series as the Ashes series for an Australian cricketer,” Code Sports quoted Lyon as saying.
“With the (World) Test Championship this series is going to be even more important and probably a bigger challenge… It’s about doing the basics, not getting too ahead of yourself and enjoying the challenge – I think This is going to be the biggest.”
Ahead of the two series Australia play in Asia as a part of the ICC World Test Championship 2023, Lyon has recognized the challenges that are still exciting.
“There’s no point in hiding behind it,” Leon said. “It’s a challenge we want to pride ourselves on – going out there and doing really well. This challenge is huge and it’s bloody exciting to be honest.”
Australia scripted history in the recently concluded Test tour of Pakistan under Pat Cummins, where they registered their first overseas Test series win since 2016 and their first in Asia since 2011. The win in 2011 came against Sri Lanka, who will next face off on 29 June. Two match test series. However, as with all of Australia’s overseas tours in Asia, Pakistan’s win has given them renewed confidence.
He said, “We said it was going to be a tough 15 days of cricket, and we were on the spot. It was an absolutely incredible challenge for the whole 15 days and we saw the ups and downs of playing Test cricket in the subcontinent and How to challenge it,” Lyon said.
After the first Test of the series was drawn, Australia moved closer to taking an unassailable lead in the second Test.
Lyon shrugged off the struggles they faced in the first Test and their confidence pulled them off a heist, picking up four wickets in the final innings. Despite century efforts from Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, the hosts reached a draw.
“I was very disappointed that I was not able to win. But also a little realistic – sometimes you have to take off your hat and say well played. Babar played an exceptional innings.
“Every time Babar hit a boundary it was like a half-filled MCG screaming and there were only a quarter of the guys there. They love their cricket in Pakistan, but being able to silence Babar by getting him out was a lot. Special.”
–IANS
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