Hello Friends,
Here I'm with the last installment of 2023 for our monthly story Sports Talk Of The Month. Last month of 2023 was majorly cricket dominated. Indian men's team started the tough tour of South Africa on a positive note by levelling the T20I series 1-1 and winning the one day series by 2-1. Hopefully first month of 2024 brings some much needed luck to register their maiden test series victory on South African soil. On the other hand West Indies men's team continued their resurgence in the white ball format by beating England in both T20I & one day series. Indian women's team winning back to back test matches against England & Australia on home soil grabbed much of the attention raising questions on lack of test matches for women's team. New Zealand loosing a test match against Bangladesh, commencement of yet another BBL season, Pakistan competing with Australia for some crucial WTC(World test championship) points made headlines too. But the story that is going to feature in this post is about the greatness of a red ball specialist who achieved a remarkable milestone in his career earlier this month. Any guesses?
Lyon's love for test cricket
In the T20 arena any achievement by a test specialist is always remarkable. It becomes even more special when an Australian spinner majorly playing in non Asian conditions breaches 500 test wickets mark. Nathan Lyon became 2nd Australian spinner after legendary Shane Warne and 4th spinner overall to achieve the milestone earlier this month against Pakistan. What an honour to see your name next to the absolute legends of the game like Muralitharan, Kumble, Warne. Lyon, a veteran of 123 tests is known for his perseverance and hunger to succeed. He has been the lead spinner for the Aussies in test cricket for a decade now. Such an achievement by one of the most underrated spinners of this generation is really remarkable.
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| Nathan Lyon bowling against England Image Credit: flickr.com/Ben Sutherland |
It's not easy to stay away from lucrative deals that T20 cricket offers these days across the globe. But Lyon's commitment is second to none when it comes to test cricket. Not so long ago when we witnessed his brave act of coming to bat with an unbearable injury during the Ashes earlier this year. Playing most of his cricket outside Asian subcontinent where there is less assistance for spinners makes his achievement a staggering one. He is never a huge turner of the ball. But his accuracy in terms of line and length makes him lethal in any condition. He probably would have achieved this landmark earlier in the year during the Ashes had he played the full series.
Probably time has come when Lyon should be given his due credit similar to the modern day greats like Jimmy Anderson or Stuart Broad who prioritized test cricket. Lyon is a proper team man who is ready to do anything for the success of his team. It would be interesting to see how does he plan his career from hear on. Considering he is still very hungry and fit enough it shouldn't be a surprise to see yet another red ball specialist playing test cricket in his 40s and achieving greater milestones.
That's it for this year. Will be back in the new year with lot more interesting sporting stories like these. Stay tuned here. Wishing you all a happy new year in advance.
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