Australia might have regained the Ashes in Adelaide – but Nathan Lyon’s final-day hamstring injury looks set to cause selectors a serious headache over Christmas, ahead of the Boxing Day Test.
While the 38-year old’s absence isn’t quite the nightmare it was two years ago when his absence for the final three Tests of the 2023 Ashes helped England square the series, having been left out of the XI twice in the last four matches, there is no direct and obvious replacement for him in the team, unlike for when Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were ruled out of the start of the summer.
Several spinners remain in the queue behind Lyon, from long-term heir apparent Todd Murphy to rising Western Australian Todd Murphy; while Matt Kuhnemann’s work as a subcontinent specialist at Test level gives him a claim as well.
Or do Australia try a different tack, going back to the four-seamer line-up that worked at the Gabba … or perhaps even look to extend the batting order and trust part-time spin to hold sway at the MCG?
Here is every option to replace Nathan Lyon for Boxing Day, ranked.
6. Matt Kuhnemann
Pro: 25 wickets in five Tests at an average of 22.2 makes a pretty compelling case for Kuhnemann in and of itself. The left-arm finger spinner was given his chance on the 2023 tour of India after previously being seen as a white-ball prospect only, played a key role in a famous Australian win in Indore in his second match, and was Lyon’s equal in turning conditions in a 2-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka earlier this year. More than just a subcontinent specialist, the 29-year old is accurate, economical, and capable of tying down an end for the quicks to attack at the other if given the nod – which is more than can be said for any spinner England have at their disposal.
Con: While a first-class bowling average of just under 30 is respectable, just 28 games for Queensland and Tasmania over a five-year Shield career is hardly the body of work several rival spinners have to their name. There’s also the question of workloads: he has bowled just three red-ball overs this summer, due to both a side strain and white-ball commitments for Australia. He’d have to vault past a few more deserving spinners to get into the team for Boxing Day – and even then, selectors could surely afford to be more ambitious with changing the structure of the line-up than to replace Lyon with Kuhnemann.
5. Beau Webster
Pro: The stiffest omission from the Test team in a generation leading into the summer, Webster has spent this Ashes as sub fielder and drinks waiter. Remains Australia’s fifth-higher run-scorer for the year, having compiled four half-centuries in an impressive first seven Tests across six different countries. His bowling is handy without being spectacular – but his off-spin would be an upgrade on Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, who filled in for Lyon on Day 5 in Adelaide. Australia opted to go without a spinner and pick two all-rounders on one occasion during the 2023 Ashes series after Lyon went down; might they do so again?
Con: If Webster does come in – and he’s every chance of doing so – it will surely be for Cameron Green in the middle order at the team’s designated all-rounder. With Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc coming off three straight Tests and with only four days’ break from Adelaide, it would be silly to weaken the bowling attack by replacing Lyon with Webster, especially with Pat Cummins also set to be sidelined. The Aussies are after a 5-0 whitewash – extending the batting order to try and force a draw was the aim in 2023 when they pulled a similar trick, but while they got away with it thanks to rain, that was also the site of England’s brutal Old Trafford mauling of a threadbare attack.
4. Mitchell Swepson
Pro: Not since Brad Hogg in January 2008 has Australia picked a specialist wrist-spinner on home shores; and the great Shane Warne 12 months before that was the last leggie. Swepson performed creditably as second spinner to Lyon on tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2022, on far truer batting surfaces than what Kuhnemann and Todd Murphy have enjoyed since. Vaulted in the queue by that pair, the 32-year old has had a solid Sheffield Shield season for Queensland, with the highlight a match-winning 10-wicket haul against South Australia.
Con: Since the start of the 2024/25 Shield season, Swepson has 47 wickets at an average of over 43 – substantially worse than the other three spinners vying to replace Lyon. A first-class average of 36.90 over a decade might have been good enough for Nathan Hauritz, Jason Krejza and Michael Beer to earn Test caps in years gone by, but Australia’s spin stocks are deeper now. For all the nostalgic value in picking a leg-spinner for Boxing Day, there are better alternatives.
3. Michael Neser
Pro: With Alex Carey regularly up to the stumps, Neser played a spinner-esque containing role as the fourth seamer at the Gabba when Lyon was dropped, and after his second-innings five-for, was stiff to miss out in Adelaide. Durable, economical and an excellent batter to boot, If Jhye Richardson is indeed recalled to replace Cummins, Neser looms as the most spinner-like quick available, with his control and fitness, if they choose another four-man pace attack.
Con: The pink ball and prevailing conditions in Brisbane convinced selectors they had no need of Lyon; and even then, there were times through the Test when Australia could have used a specialist spinner. But even putting structure and the fatigue of the incumbent quicks aside, to go back to a four-man seam attack would feel like a missed opportunity. As deserving as Neser is of more Tests, two dead-rubber matches with the Ashes won is a perfect chance to take a look at potential long-term Lyon replacements, whose cricketing mortality has never loomed larger. Four quicks would surely only be considered if Cameron Green were to be omitted in favour of Webster – and even then, it seems unlikely.
2. Corey Rocchiccioli
Pro: Logically, Lyon’s replacement should be the most in-form spinner in the country – right now, that’s Ricchiccioli. Only Swepson among slow bowlers has taken more than the Western Australian’s 20 wickets at 28.2 in six Shield matches this summer – and at a significantly higher average. Factor in as well that the 28-year old has had to make his name at the WACA and amongst Western Australia’s overflowing pace-bowling stocks – that takes skill, nerve and strength of character for a spinner. Represented Australia A on a recent tour of India and performed creditably against several international batters, so the jump to Test cricket isn’t quite as daunting as it would otherwise be.
Con: While he has improved with every passing year for WA, the biggest mark agianst Rocchiccioli isn’t his numbers, or his batting (he’s a handy tailender), or his age, or his temperament. Really, it’s just that there’s another spinner who has also been representing Australia A alongside him in recent times, long earmarked as Lyon’s successor, with an excellent Test record to his name and who, frankly, has done nothing wrong to be leapfrogged.
Corey Rocchiccioli unsuccessfully appeals for a wicket. (Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images)
1. Todd Murphy
Pro: When handed a shock Test debut to start the 2023 tour of India, after only seven first-class matches for Victoria, Murphy took seven wickets, outbowled Lyon, and immediately became the most promising spinner seen in the country since the GOAT himself more than a decade earlier. He played all four Tests that tour, three as part of a spin trio alongside Lyon and Kuhnemann, and was the obvious choice to come in when Lyon was injured mid-Ashes tour later that year. A first-class average of 34.87 is uglier than it deserves to be given the bulk of his games have been at the Junction Oval, where bowlers go to die. Alongside Rocchiccioli for a two-match Australia A tour of India in September, you couldn’t confidently say either out-bowled the other; but with experience at playing on the MCG, international cricket under his belt and an average of 23.7 from four Shield matches this summer, the Victorian has done nothing to deserve to be usurped.
First ball after lunch and Murphy has his FOURTH, it's the big wicket of Virat Kohli!
— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) February 10, 2023
????WATCH: #INDvAUS on Ch. 501 or stream via @kayosports: https://t.co/sgK8cLGI9i
BLOG: https://t.co/O40OIhVyL2
???? MATCH CENTRE: https://t.co/nFwUFkyiZI pic.twitter.com/QJAIHHlP1f
Con: The only question mark over whether Murphy remains at the front of the post-Lyon is, well, that Australia’s selectors haven’t always maintained that pecking order. Was famously not trusted with more than two overs in England’s fourth innings run chase when replacing Lyon for the third Ashes Test in 2023, and then was dropped in favour of a second all-rounder for the next match. More recently, a lacklustre effort in the first Test against Sri Lanka in January saw him left out, again to extend the batting in the form of Cooper Connolly’s Test debut. On the one hand, that skittishness might strengthen his case – there’s no compelling reason for leaving him out now and far lower stakes than either time he has previously been flicked. But could it be that Australia’s hierarchy no longer believe he’s the next man in line?
One way or another, we’re about to find out.
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