England are leading the series 2-1 with one Test remaining.
The Ashes battle lines are already being drawn as Australia’s ace spinner Nathan Lyon issued a warning to England ahead of the upcoming Ashes series Down Under. Lyon emphasised that England’s ultra-aggressive, ‘Bazball’, approach will work in his favour, providing him with chances to take more wickets.
The 37-year-old expects the Ben Stokes-led side to continue their attacking batting style in Australia but believes that it will present a completely different challenge. He highlighted that every touring side wants to take charge against spinners, yet he has a combined wicket tally of the entire bowling squad of England. The Aussie great, who has over 562 wickets in Tests, stressed that he has already taken notes and is drawing new tactics to challenge their batters.
“I totally expect them to come out and attack me,” Lyon said at a Melbourne Renegades sponsor event in Melbourne. “Every touring team says they’re going to attack the spinner, so I’m pretty used to that now. Guys are trying to attack me; bring me into the game. So I’m looking forward to that. I’ve got some plans, and I’m already writing down a few things I want to try to put in play and work on. That’s England and the way they’re playing their cricket, so it’s amazing theatre and something I love viewing.”
Lyon also harshly criticised the flat pitches offered in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025. He compared English tracks with pacey and bouncy tracks in Australia. The 37-year-old believes that pitches in Australia are more competitive than England’s “flat pitches”. He emphasised that fans want to see a balance between bat and ball, not long, dull stalemates like one in Manchester.
“The conditions over here (in Australia), it’s always been a great competition between bat and ball, and that’s the way Australia’s produced wickets like that. So it’s going to be challenging for their batters and challenging for our batters. That’s the way cricket should be. You want to see competition between bat and ball,” he stressed. “I think that’s crucial, and all the fans, that’s what they want to see. They don’t really want to watch what happened over in Manchester last week.”
Only two and a half innings were played across five days of the Manchester Test. India scored 358 and 425/4 across two innings while England batted only once and scored 669. The Shubman Gill-led side played 114.1 overs in the first innings and 143 overs in the second. England took 157 overs to score 669 runs in the first innings. This reflects that there was hardly any help for the bowlers.
The second Test in Birmingham witnessed a 1692-run total aggregate being scored across five days. That’s the ninth-biggest aggregate runs scored in a Test match. Indian skipper Shubman Gill scored 430 runs alone, amassing 269 in the first innings and 161 in the second. That’s the second-highest aggregate runs in a Test match after England’s Graham Gooch against India in 1990 at Lord’s. This underlines the lack of balance between bat and ball.
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