Australia prepare for life without 'shattered' Nathan Lyon

Australia will get a look at what life without Nathan Lyon looks like this week at the MCG and in the medium-term as the veteran offspinner faces a long road back to Test cricket after hamstring surgery.

Lyon, 38, went under the knife on Tuesday after suffering a serious right hamstring tear in the field on the final day of the Adelaide Test on Sunday. Australia coach Andrew McDonald did not have a timeframe on when Lyon would be back, but he is expected to be sidelined for at least three-four months.

Australia do not play any more Test cricket until a two-Test series against Bangladesh in August 2026 in Darwin and Mackay. That is the start of a 12-month stretch where they will play at least 20 Tests, including a three-match tour of South Africa, four home Tests against New Zealand, five Tests in India, a one-off home Test against England in March 2027 to celebrate the 150-year anniversary of Test cricket, and then an away Ashes series in June and July of 2027 which may follow another WTC final if Australia qualify.

McDonald said Lyon was determined to get back, having long stated that he wanted to play in the 2027 Ashes, when he will be a 39-year-old. McDonald reiterated that Lyon was a key part of their planning for the 2027 tour of India but stressed it will be a long road back for him, two years on from his major calf injury in 2023, which did not require surgery.

"He's pretty shattered," McDonald said on Tuesday. "He's facing a long recovery timeframe, so I'll leave that up to the medical team, but all I know is it'll be pretty long.

"After the surgery, I think we'll get more information as to what they've done. The scan will tell us one thing, but I'd imagine that the surgeon will give us a report, and then they'll give us a rough length of time, and it's going to take a lot of hard work.

"That type of injury, it's going to be a hard period for him to obviously get back to where he was but he still wants to do it, and that's the main thing. India is on the horizon. He'll be a key part of that. We've got New Zealand before that, and we've got South Africa before that.

"I think in Adelaide, it was probably the best I've seen him bowl for a little while in terms of the shape and the energy he had on the ball. So, yeah, get through this rehab and then look forward to what it looks like."

It's forced Australia's selectors to accelerate a succession plan. They have opted for 25-year-old Todd Murphy as the lone spin option in Melbourne, even though he is not guaranteed to play as the selectors mull playing a four-pronged pace attack again if the MCG surface is lively.

Murphy beat out CA-contracted Matthew Kuhnemann, leading Shield offspinner Corey Rocchiccioli and four-Test veteran legspinner Mitchell Swepson, in a selection decision that was hotly debated.

"It's always pretty robust around when you've got three potential candidates, or even four," McDonald said. "Todd's been an important part of key overseas series. He played in the last Ashes back in 2023, and we feel as though Todd's back to his best.

"I think he had a couple of years where by his own admission he wasn't probably performing to his best, but he also was carrying a shoulder injury, and that probably wasn't sort of declared. And sometimes people judge player's performances without getting a full understanding of where they're actually at.

"I spoke to Toddy this morning. Really excited for him to be back around the group. We've got some decisions to make. I just had a look at the wicket then. Do we play a spinner? Don't we play a spinner? We'll work through that. But it was an interesting conversation with the spin depth we do have, which is full recognition to those also that were discussed."

Australia's spin depth was long a source of derision in the immediate aftermath of Shane Warne's retirement. But with Lyon nearing the end, Australia's depth is as strong as it has been in years to the point where the selectors have options for different conditions.

Kuhnemann is first-choice as Lyon's partner on the subcontinent owing to the value of left-arm orthodox spin in those conditions and his performances in five Tests in India and Sri Lanka.

Rocchiccioli is the most like Lyon in terms of the bounce and spin he can generate in home conditions and would have been a huge chance to have been picked ahead of Murphy if Lyon had been injured for the Perth and Brisbane Tests. As it stands, Rocchiccioli is very unlucky in any case because his recent Shield record is better than Murphy's.

But Murphy's experience against England's Bazballers in 2023, plus his bounceback from a shoulder issue this season, is part of the reason he has got the nod. He knows how to complement a strong seam attack and play a defensive holding role against an aggressive batting unit to help build pressure from both ends in the manner that Lyon did on day two in Adelaide.

"I think the shoulder injury that he has had, and that's probably limited him to some degree, and there's always judgment on how people are performing," McDonald said. "There's also the layer of how teams use their spinners. So Victoria have a really fine pace attack that does a lot of work for them, and sometimes the spin option doesn't get the opportunity to impact the games potentially how other teams play it.

"But his journey has been a great one. I think he's played seven Test matches now, so he's familiar with the group, and he's got that experience under his belt.

"He's faced this opponent, albeit in 2023 I think he took six wickets at The Oval and held his own. And even if you look back to Headingley, he created a couple of opportunities there that we weren't able to take so we feel he's got the skill sets to balance out our attack. And that's a big discussion, too, how we balance our attack, what we expect of our spinner and if we were to play a spinner, you'll probably see how we use him and it may make a little bit of sense."