We might have to play some ugly cricket: Nathan Lyon

Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon seems to be highly enthusiastic about the Test series against South Africa. The Australia team has recently gone through a very rough patch but this hasn’t stopped their leading spinner from starting the war of words.

After being whitewashed in the Test series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, the Steven Smith led side faced a similar fate in South Africa after failing to register even a single win in the ODI series against the Proteas.

Lyon, who was part of the Test squad that toured Sri Lanka, spoke to a local media in Australia ahead of their preparations for the Test series against the South Africans. The spinner spoke about the issues surrounding the Australian Test cricket team and expressed his views over the recent losses.

Lyon said that he was confident about Australia bouncing back in the Test series against the Proteas with the first Test scheduled to start from 3 November at WACA in Perth.

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“Yes, South Africa are a great team – they’ve got some world-class superstars in there but we need to go out and play well,” Lyon told Fairfax Media. “We just need to get out there and compete and get back to playing some good, strong, positive cricket,” he added.

The off-spinner feels that it is time for the Australians to be more aggressive on the field. He said that the team needed to show a lot more character on the field and be right on top of their opposition.

Lyon also felt that the team had taken a lot of lessons from their tour against the Sri Lankans and would be using them effectively in the coming matches. “We’ll be better for that run in Sri Lanka, for all the experience,” Lyon said. “A lot of players had never played in the subcontinent before so it’s now an opportunity for us to get better,” he was quoted as saying in The Age.

Lyon also said that the team has its eyes set on the Test series against India as well. He said that the Australians didn’t need a big revamp but minute changes regarding the strategies were necessary. “We might have to adjust a few things here and there and might have to play some ugly cricket and go away from the big expansive game of cricket,” he was quoted as saying in The Age.

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Though the Australians are known to get under the skin of the opposition when it comes to aggression on the field, it remains to be seen if they follow Lyon’s philosophy of “playing ugly.”