"It's too early" - Nathan Lyon shuts down Shane Warne-style retirement after 2025-26 Ashes
Veteran Australian spinner Nathan Lyon has shut down pulling off Shane Warne's style retirement following the 2025-26 Ashes series on home soil. The record-breaking off-spinner also opened up on listening to how the English players are planning to approach the Ashes in the Lancashire dressing room.
Warne brought curtains down on his illustrious career after the 2006-07 Ashes series along with Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, and Justin Langer as Australia regained the urn. The champion leg-spinner finished with 708 scalps in 145 Tests at 25.41 and is still the second-highest wicket-taker in the format.
Lyon, despite currently being 36, has remarked that it's too early to talk of retirement and was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald:
"It’s too early."
The New South Wales spinner revealed speaking to the towering Tom Hartley and reckons Australia's plans should be good enough to force another series win.
"I thoroughly enjoyed my time in England being inside the Lancs change room, listening to guys talk about the Ashes, talk about the way they’re planning, the way they’re going to approach winning out here. 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. If the plans that we’ve spoken about come true I think it will be interesting," he added.
England have produced torrid displays Down Under over their last three tours. They last won a Test in Australia in 2011 and have lost with scorelines of 5-0, 4-0, and 4-0 the last three times.
"India seem to have the ability to grab someone out of nowhere, and they become an absolute superstar" - Nathan Lyon
Lyon also singled out opener Yashasvi Jaiswal as the biggest threat to Australia in the home series against India later this year.
"India seem to have the ability to grab someone out of nowhere, and they become an absolute superstar. You look at this Jaiswal. I haven’t come across him yet, but that’s going to be a massive challenge for all us bowlers. The way he played in the recent Test series against England in India, I watched that quite closely, and I thought that was quite amazing," he said in the same interaction.
The blockbuster five-match Test series between India and Australia begins on November 22 in Perth.