New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS): Australia’s veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon said he is extremely hungry to turn things around and make sure the hosts complete their unfinished business against India by winning the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series at home later this year.
Australia have not won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home after winning the 2014/15 series 2-0. Since then, they have lost the prestigious trophy at home in 2018/19 and 2020/21, where India came back from being 36 out in Adelaide to win the series 2-1 through unforgettable wins at the MCG and Gabba apart from a pulsating draw in Sydney.
"It's been ten years of unfinished business, it's been a long time, and I know 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."
"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," Lyon was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
He also thinks bowling to left-handed opener Yashasvi Jaiswal will be a big challenge for the Australian bowling line-up. But Lyon, who has 530 Test scalps to his name, added he made use of his time while playing for Lancashire in county cricket to pick up some intel on the Indian batters via left-arm spinner Tom Hartley, who was on England’s Test tour of the sub-continent earlier this year.
"I haven't come across him (Jaiswal) yet, but that will be a massive challenge for all us bowlers. The way he played against England, I watched that quite closely and thought that was quite amazing. I had some really good chats with Tom Hartley about different ways 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," he concluded.
The first Test of the five-match series will be played at Perth Stadium on November 22.