“We didn’t score enough runs” - Nathan Lyon admits Australia’s batting has been a major problem
Nathan Lyon has admitted that losing the Boxing Day Test against India hurt Australia. The off-spinner rued the fact that the home side haven’t been able to score enough runs, saying that the team's loss was because of their batting.
Australia’s batting struggles have been evident across the first two Tests against India. Only two batsmen have scored half-centuries, while the team have crossed the 200-run mark just once across the four innings.
In his exclusive column for Fox Sports, Nathan Lyon opened up on Australia’s poor batting performances in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“We didn’t score enough runs, it’s as simple as that. We know if we bat for long periods and can keep those guys out there, we will get more scoring opportunities. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do that so far.”
Australia’s failure to put runs on the board has been as much about execution as it has been about the absence of personnel. The Aussies have missed David Warner massively.
A possible debut for Will Pucovski may see the hosts try out a completely new opening combination, with Matthew Wade dropping to the middle order.
Nathan Lyon and co. will hope Steve Smith returns to form, while they back Marnus Labuschagne to convert his starts into big scores.
Nathan Lyon backs Australia to learn from their mistakes
Nathan Lyon stated that Australia have spoken about the things that went wrong in the Boxing Day loss.
The off-spinner expressed his confidence that the team have learnt from their mistakes, and have trained correctly over the past few days.
Lyon also praised India’s bowling efforts and claimed that the hosts are hopeful about countering it.
“We also recognised the things we did well to make sure our preparations for the Sydney Test are 100 per cent right. I know our training has been on point for the last couple of days. We are really hopeful that things will come together for us at the SCG and that we’ve come up with the right plans to combat India’s bowling, which has been really good this series.”
With Australia set to put out a new-look batting line-up at Sydney, their fortunes may also take a turn for the good.
Nathan Lyon and the Australian pace bowling attack have been in great form across the first two Tests. But will their efforts be backed by the Australian batsmen this time?