Pat Cummins drops surprise Nathan Lyon hint as Aussies weigh-up Scott Boland move

Yahoo

12-07-2025

Aussie captain Pat Cummins hasn't ruled out Nathan Lyon being left out of the Pink-ball Test against the West Indies with the wicket set to favour the quicks. The Test series between the West Indies and Australia has seen some low totals so far in Barbados and Grenada.
The first match of the series saw only Australia surpass the 200 mark across the four innings. In the second Test match, no team surpassed a total of 300. Australia won by 133 runs having dismissed the West Indies cheaply to win the match.
And Lyon was sparsely used in the first Test match. While he did become more involved in the second having taken six wickets, most of the wickets were helping clean up the tail. But with knowledge the pink ball often favours the quicks, and how the pitches have been playing, Cummins admitted the make-up of the team hasn't been finalised.
"[There are] a few more unknowns…I think mainly [the] pink ball and trying to get our heads around exactly what it's going to do," Cummins said ahead of the clash. "That last session [under lights] might be a little bit longer than Adelaide."
When asked about whether Lyon will line-up in the XI, Cummins remained coy. "I think everything's an option. We honestly haven't settled on it. We all left yesterday and thought we'd just sleep on it, come back and have a look and make up our mind today," he said.
Lyon has an impressive record with the pink ball in Australia having taken 43 wickets at 25.62 throughout his career. Although last year against India, Lyon was hardly used having bowled just one over. And he didn't bowl at all against England in the 2021-22 Ashes.
If coach Andrew McDonald and Australia opt to go with an extra quick, Scott Boland will come into the side. Boland has taken 12 wickets at 16.75 in three day-night Tests. This would allow Beau Webster to bowl off-spin if the team required, while Travis Head could also chip-in.
Sam Konstas has struggled so far this series having returned to the side with Marnus Labuschagne dropping out. Konstas will get another chance to prove himself, but he has not been able to get going having scored 33 runs across four innings.
Konstas appeared shattered after his duck in Grenada, but Cummins has admitted the team is rallying around the youngster as he was welcomed back into the fold. "Don't get too caught up in it," Cummins said of his advice for Konstas after the duck. "Every innings feels like the biggest thing in the world.
"The stat is that the best batters in the world don't hit their average three out of four times, so you're going to fail more often than you're going to succeed. As long as you're a quick learner, as long as you're moving well and giving yourself the best chance, keep doubling down on that and judge yourself after a series, not innings by innings."