Full Name

Nathan Michael Lyon

Born

November 20, 1987, Young, New South Wales

Age

35y 191d

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Right arm Offbreak

Playing Role

Bowler

An offspinner whose work as a curator took him from Canberra to Adelaide, Nathan Lyon completed a remarkable rise when he was picked in Australia's Test squad in July 2011. The previous year, he had taken up a job on the Adelaide Oval groundstaff, and his bowling talent was spotted by the Redbacks' Big Bash coach Darren Berry. Lyon impressed in T20s for South Australia, made his first-class debut, and within seven months was a Test cricketer. A classical offspinner who flights the ball and looks for wickets, Lyon struck with his first delivery in Test cricket when he had Kumar Sangakkara caught at slip in Galle. It was part of a haul of 5 for 34 and the beginning of a career that would, for the most part, end Australia's cycle of churning through Test spinners in the post-Warne era. By 2015, Lyon had become Australia's most successful Test offspinner of all time, passing Hugh Trumble's tally of 141 wickets, and he was affectionately nicknamed by his teammates as the GOAT - greatest of all time - as a result.

However, Lyon's career was not without bumps along the way. In 2013 he was dropped from the Test team twice, first in India after he was attacked by MS Dhoni in the first Test in Chennai, and then for the first two Tests of the Ashes tour of England. The Ashes axing was especially galling for Lyon, given that he had taken nine wickets in his previous Test, the fourth and final Test of the Indian tour in Delhi, and he was overlooked for the uncapped teenager Ashton Agar. By the third Test, Lyon was rightfully back in the side and continued to be a consistent performer (as off early 2022 he had not missed another Test). One gap in his game had been the ability to bowl Australia to victory in the fourth innings of a Test, but he finally achieved that against India in Adelaide in 2014-15, in what became his first Player-of-the-Match performance, although it was something that continued to come under occasional scrutiny in following years.

In late 2021, against England at the Gabba, he came just the third Australia to take 400 Test wickets leaving only Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne ahead of him. It was a more fitting moment than the 300th wicket three years earlier against South Africa at Newlands which was largely missed in the aftermath of the ball-tampering scandal.

Despite first making his name for South Australia in T20, Lyon has generally been considered by the national selectors a Test-only prospect - his limited batting often making him a tricky fit in the eleven. He is an excellent fielder and his direct hit to run out James Vince at the Gabba in 2017-18 Ashes was a key moment on the opening day of the series.
ESPNcricinfo staff

Nathan Lyon Career Stats

Bowling

FormatMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
Test11922330909150554828/5013/15431.232.9264.119234
ODI292916261334294/444/4446.004.9256.0100
T20I22304811/331/3348.009.6030.0000
FC19836148581238327188/5013/15433.192.9467.628285
List A807842793496904/104/1038.844.9047.5400
T20514910181247575/235/2321.877.3417.8110

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAveBFSR100s50s4s6sCtSt
Test1191484313374712.73266350.200017213570
ODI291410773019.258392.77007270
T20I21144*-4100.00000000
FC1982526823217512.61455350.970227227880
List A80392024037*12.6324199.5800228340
T205118760115.456493.750040150
Nathan Michael Lyon

Explore Statsguru Analysis

Test
ODI
T20I

Recent Matches of Nathan Lyon

MatchBatBowlDateGroundFormat
Australia vs India343/15109-Mar-2023AhmedabadTest # 2499
Australia vs India53/35 & 8/6401-Mar-2023IndoreTest # 2496
Australia vs India10 & 85/67 & 2/4917-Feb-2023DelhiTest # 2493
Australia vs India0* & 81/12609-Feb-2023NagpurTest # 2490
Sixers vs Scorchers--0/2815-Jan-2023SydneyT20

Videos of Nathan Lyon

Photos of Nathan Lyon

Nathan Lyon, Matt Kuhnemann and Ravindra Jadeja catch up after the day's play
Virat Kohli brought out a jersey for one of the Australian players
Nathan Lyon helps Todd Murphy with his fielding plans
Nathan Lyon celebrates the wicket of Shubman Gill
Nathan Lyon scored useful runs in a 70-run stand with Todd Murphy for the ninth wicket
Nathan Lyon and Steven Smith inspect conditions in Ahmedabad
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