Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Unfinished business

Sydney, August 18

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Ace off-spinner Nathan Lyon has already started his homework on rising batting sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal with England spinner Tom Hartley’s inputs on the southpaw safely stored in his memory bank ahead of the five-Test Border-Gavaskar series between India and Australia starting from November 22.

Jaiswal, who scored a century on debut in West Indies last year, scored an astounding 712 runs in the five-Test series against England at home earlier this year. But the pace and bounce on offer on Australian tracks will pose a different challenge for the Mumbaikar.

“I haven’t come across him (Jaiswal) yet, but that will be a massive challenge for all us bowlers,” Lyon said. “The way he (Jaiswal) played against England, I watched that quite closely and thought that was quite amazing. I had some really good chats with Tom about different ways he went about it to different guys which I found quite interesting.”

Lyon had a stint in English county cricket with Lancashire and had an opportunity to share notes with Hartley, who had 20 wickets in four Tests against India.

The 36-year-old Lyon, who has 530 wickets from 129 Tests, feels that with so much information “floating around”, Aussies have the best chance to complete “unfinished business” against India.

“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 said.

Since winning the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-0, Australia have lost the next four series against India — including two at home. “If the plans we’ve spoken about come to true, then I think it will be,” he said.

“It’s been 10 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,” Lyon said.

“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,” he said.

Lyon feels that this Australian team under Pat Cummins is slightly different compared to Tim Paine’s team that lost back-to-back series against India at home.

“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,” he said.

Along with Lyon, Josh Hazlewood is another survivor from the 2014-15 series and conceded Australia’s recent results against India present a significant hole in their record.

“There are quite a few players who have never beaten India in a Test series. It’s quite astounding to say that,” Hazlewood said. “That’s the one we need to tick off, definitely, in particular at home - we should pretty much win every series at home.

Cummins takes a break

Captain Cummins has taken an eight-week break to re-energise himself in his quest to lift the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Cummins, who recently returned from the United States following his maiden stint in Major League Cricket, was rested for next month’s white-ball tour of the United Kingdom to manage his workload and give him time to work on his body ahead of a busy summer.

“Everyone that comes back after a break is a little bit fresher, you never regret it,” Cummins said. “I’ve basically been bowling non-stop since the World Test Championship final, nearly 18 months ago. This gives me a good seven or eight weeks completely off bowling so the body can recover, then you start building up again for the summer. It means you can hopefully bowl for a little bit longer, maintaining pace is a bit easier, makes you less susceptible to injuries,” he added. — PTI