The career arc of Nathan Lyon is in the penultimate phase of Paul Hogan’s theory of going full circle after starting out as an unknown.
Hogan famously went from working on the Sydney Harbour Bridge to become a national celebrity before gaining worldwide fame as Crocodile Dundee.
His theory was that when he was first starting out, people would say “who’s Paul Hogan?”.
When he became famous, Hollywood studios would say “we want Paul Hogan”.
Then it became “get me someone like Paul Hogan” before inevitably people would wonder “who’s Paul Hogan?”.
Lyon is not quite in Crocodile Dundee in LA territory as he rages against the light of the final part of his career after being dropped twice in the past three Tests.
But he is at a stage of his career where the national selectors are seizing up his replacement as Australia’s first-choice Test spinner.
The 38-year-old wants to continue until the 2027 Ashes, ideally with a World Test Championship final victory immediately beforehand, but for the first time in more than a decade, there is doubt over Lyon’s place in the team.
Fellow off-spinner Todd Murphy and left-arm option Matt Kuhnemann have been taken out for a test spin on subcontinental tours over the past couple of years and are at the front of the queue to succeed Lyon.
Western Australian offie Corey Rocchiccioli is also pushing his name before the selectors, who have given him a whirl at Australia A level after his impressive wicket-taking feats at Sheffield Shield level in recent seasons despite playing half his matches on unforgiving home tracks for spinners.
Corey Rocchiccioli. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
Lyon is all but certain to be returned to the line-up for next Wednesday’s third Ashes Test against England at Adelaide after Queensland veteran seamer Michael Neser was preferred as the fourth frontline bowler in Brisbane.
The selectors were vindicated by Neser’s cutters claiming 5-42 in the second innings, just as they were in Jamaica in July when they controversially left Lyon riding the pine for a day-nighter to go with Scott Boland, who took a hat-trick in the emphatic victory.
Lyon was only given two overs at Optus Stadium in the Ashes series opener, not used at all in the second dig even when tailenders Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse bashed their way to a 52-run partnership which threatened to extend Australia’s fourth-innings target well beyond 200.
In the past five years, his usage has dwindled as Pat Cummins and Steve Smith, when he has stood in as captain, have increasingly used pace over spin unless they have been in the subcontinent.
Lyon’s dwindling usage
| Test | Overs | Overs per Test | Wickets | Average | |
| 2021 | 5 | 260.1 | 52 | 17 | 36 |
| 2022 | 11 | 500.5 | 45.5 | 47 | 29.06 |
| 2023 | 10 | 400.1 | 40 | 47 | 24.95 |
| 2024 | 9 | 270 | 30 | 33 | 22.69 |
| 2025 | 7 | 175.3 | 25 | 24 | 24.45 |
The good news for Lyon is that he is still producing.
Test players who don’t do so at this age end up on the scrapheap, or at least they should but the Australian selectors disproved that maxim in the David Warner scenario and could be repeating that error if they recall his old opening partner Usman Khawaja in Adelaide.
In an age when sportspeople are trained to robotically regurgitate platitudes during moments of disappointment, it was refreshing to see Lyon crank up the crankiness to 11 when he gave a sideline interview at the Gabba on day one last week.
Moments after mingling with chief selector George Bailey, who was sitting among the reserve fielders in the player dugout, Lyon admitted he was “absolutely filthy”.
“Can’t do anything about it,” he added before saying he’d fill his role as a devoted reserve, running out drinks and fresh towels to his teammates chosen ahead of him.
Todd Murphy. (Photo by John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)
He played good soldier by pointing out he was not the first player to get dropped but used terms like “gutted” and “extremely disappointed” to let everyone, including Bailey, know that the sting of being dropped was particularly painful.
Lyon, who turned 38 last month, is Australia’s oldest spinner since the highly unusual case of NSW leggie Bob Holland, who was 38 when he was called up to the Test team during the ill-fated West Indies series of 1984-85 which brought an abrupt end to captain Kim Hughes’ career.
“Dutchy” was 40 when he lined up in his final Test at the SCG in 1986 while Lyon will be a couple of months shy of that milestone if he fulfils his ambition to play on until the end of the 2027 Ashes tour to complete “unfinished business” after never winning a series in the UK despite being part of a team which retained them twice.
Spinners definitely get better with age but the late 30s tends to be their twilight zone when nightfall can arrive suddenly.
Australia’s greatest spinner Shane Warne was 37 when the king abdicated the throne following his record-breaking career after the 2006-07 Ashes.
Matt Kuhnemann. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
His long-time understudy Stuart MacGill retired midway through the 2008 Caribbean tour at 37 because he knew he was no longer physically capable of performing to the level required in the gruelling five-day format.
And another wrist-spinner who was also stuck in Warne’s shadow for much of his career, left-armer Brad Hogg, quit international cricket earlier that year at the same age even though he had also waited an eternity for a chance to shine in the Test arena.
MacGill and Hogg were among the 11 spinners who were briefly (some more than others) given a trundle by Australian selectors along with Smith back when he was a chubby young leggie, Nathan Hauritz, Jason Krejza, Bryce McGain, Xavier Doherty, Michael Beer, Jon Holland, Beau Casson and Cameron White.
And when he was picked after a handful of first-class matches, the call went up “who’s Nathan Lyon?” and the spin cycle started all over again.
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