AUS vs IND – Nathan Lyon on India – ‘A decade of unfinished business’

“It has been ten years since the business was completed, it has been a long time, and I know that we are very hungry to change things, especially here at home,” said Lyon. “Don’t get me wrong, India are a complete and challenging team but I am very hungry to turn things around and make sure we get that trophy.

“I feel like we’ve been a different team in the last couple of years, we’re on the journey to being a great Australian cricket team. We’re definitely not there but we’re on that journey and we’ve been playing some decent cricket.”

“I have never met him [Jaiswal] but that will be a big challenge for all of us skaters,” he said. I’ve had some really good conversations with Tom Hartley about the different ways he talks to different guys which I found really interesting.”

“I love talking about cricket, so if I can talk to someone who has played Test cricket I might be able to pick up something I don’t know. There’s a lot of information floating around in this game that we can’t always find.”

Lyon knows that could backfire on next year’s Ashes, but asked if he thought talks about India would be useful, he added: “If the plans we’ve talked about come to fruition, I think they will.”

“There are a few players who have never beaten India in a Test series. It’s amazing to say that,” he said. “That’s something we have to focus on, definitely, especially at home – we have to win every series here at home.

“That last series we bowled them out for 36 in Adelaide and we thought we were going, [we are] back home [and] convinced of these reasons. People say we played India B in the last Test, but sometimes they can be stronger than the best team. They have incredible depth across all formats and we’re starting to see that now.”

The five Tests against India will also be key in shaping the run-up to the WTC finals at Lord’s in June 2025 when Australia aim to defend their title and it is a priority for Hazlewood who missed out on last year’s final.

“It’s always in the back, we’re preparing the table [to see] where we are sitting and what we have to mark,” he said, “For me it’s big because I didn’t play the last one in England so that’s burning me up.

Hazlewood will be part of the upcoming T20I and ODI tour of UK. He then looks to play one Sheffield Shield match before the first Test against India. Meanwhile, Lyon mark three Shield exits in New South Wales at the start of the season.