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Nathan Lyon admitted he was furious after being dropped by Australia for the first time in 13 years of home Tests as the battle for the Ashes got back under way in Brisbane on Thursday.
In his absence Joe Root plundered the home side’s all-seam attack for an unbeaten 135 on the first day at the Gabba, his 40th Test century and his first on Australian soil, an effort Zak Crawley acclaimed as “one of his best”.
Lyon, Australia’s all-time third-highest Test wicket-taker, described his mood as “absolutely filthy” as he came to terms with being snubbed. “I’m letting things settle down in my own head and trying to make sure that I’m doing whatever I can to make sure the guys representing Australia do the right thing and get the right result for us,” he said.
“I’m not the first player to miss a Test match and I won’t be the last. But I’m obviously pretty gutted because I know the role that I can play, and especially at a venue like this.”
Australia’s chair of selectors, George Bailey, attempted to assuage Lyon’s fury by guaranteeing him a place in the XI for the third Test. Bailey described the move as a “one-Test decision”, adding: “Nath will disagree with the decision, and that’s perfectly OK. I have no qualms about players feeling like they can impact the game and the fact of the matter is he could have. Very much it’s a one-Test decision, Nath will play in Adelaide.”
Crawley admitted that England had been surprised by the decision to leave Lyon out while Mitchell Starc, who added six first-innings wickets to the 10 he took in Perth, said: “It’s a tough one for Nath. Everyone wants to play every game and I’m sure he’ll be disappointed. It’s certainly not a reflection of his skills. They looked at conditions and made the choice of this attack for these conditions.”
Root came to the crease in the third over with England reeling at five for two, after both Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope had been dismissed without scoring, and was unbeaten at stumps with England 325 for nine. “He played fantastically well, assessed the conditions, sucked up some pressure and got the result,” Starc said. “We’ve had a lot of good battles – he’s won a few of them and I won a few and today we both got some runs and wickets so we’ll call it even.”
Crawley, who scored 76 and combined with Root in a third-wicket partnership of 117, said the Yorkshireman’s performance had been “brilliant”. “I forget some of his hundreds, that’s how many he’s got,” the England opener said. “But it’s a phenomenal knock. It was doing plenty when he first came in and he was so calm and he was so clear about how he wanted to go about it. It has to be right up there. If you put everything into consideration, it’s got to be one of his best.”
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After England lost three wickets for 13 runs and five for 54, Root and Jofra Archer added a quickfire, 44-ball 61 in an unbroken last-wicket stand to leave the tourists happy with their position at stumps.
“We were saying go really hard and it was a win-win: if it comes off then we get quick runs, or if they get out we could have a crack at them under lights,” Crawley said. “So it was a perfect situation for us. They’re valuable runs but it would have worked out either way. We were pretty happy with 260 and having an hour at them to be honest, but I think we definitely won that last hour, so we’re positive going into tomorrow.”
