Australia's veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon has expressed strong determination to change the narrative and help the team settle their "unfinished business" against India by winning the upcoming five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series on home soil later this year.
Since the victory in the 2014/15 series, which they won 2-0, Australia has failed to wrest back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on home soil – losing both the 2018/19 and 2020/21 series to the Indians. India's remarkable comeback, especially after being bowled out for 36 at Adelaide, saw them clinch the series 2-1, thereby recording memorable victories at the MCG and Gabba, along with a thrilling draw in Sydney.
"It's been ten years of unfinished business, it's been a long time, and I know that we're extremely hungry to turn things around especially here at home. Don't get me wrong, India is an absolute superstar side and extremely challenging, but I'm extremely hungry to turn things around and make sure we get that trophy back."
Lyon added, "Feel like we are a different team to a couple of years ago, we are on a journey of becoming a great Australian cricket team. We're definitely not there but we are along that journey and have been playing some decent cricket," as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Ahead of the Test, Lyon did admit it will be a challenge to bowl to India's left-handed opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who poses a severe threat to the Australian bowling attack. With 530 Test wickets behind his name, Lyon revealed he made full use of his time with Lancashire in county cricket when he picked the brains of left-arm spinner Tom Hartley—who was part of England's Test tour of the sub-continent earlier this year—for insights on Indian batters.
"I personally haven't come across him yet, but that's going to be a big challenge for all of us bowlers. The way he played against England, I sort of watched that pretty closely, and it was pretty amazing. I had some really good chats with Tom Hartley about different ways that he went about it to different guys, which I found quite interesting."
I love talking about cricket, so if I can talk to someone who has played Test cricket I might be able to pick up something I'm not aware of. There's so much knowledge floating around this game that we can always tap into."
The much-anticipated series opener is scheduled to start at the Perth Stadium on November 22.
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