It is the second day/night Test in a row and the second time in three games Lyon, formerly one of the first names on the team sheet, has been left out in favour of an all-pace attack.
“The communication is always there, I just haven’t had it in me to sit down with the coach and George at the moment,” Lyon said.
Lyon was spinning a ball of a different kind ahead of the first day’s play.Credit: Getty Images
“So that will happen. I’m not the first player to miss a Test match and I won’t be the last. But yeah, obviously pretty gutted because I know the role that I can play within Australian cricket and especially a venue like this.”
Test great Mark Waugh and former Test leg-spinner Kerry O’Keeffe said Australia had made the wrong call in dropping Lyon, while former captain Ricky Ponting, Aaron Finch and Simon Katich all expressed their surprise at the decision for a pitch where the grass has been cut to just three millimetres.
Though Lyon bowled only two overs in the pace-dominated Perth Test, he has a strong record at the Gabba, taking 52 wickets at a tick under 29, and has 43 wickets at 25.63 with the pink ball.
“It’s no secret it’s a place where I absolutely love playing cricket and I feel like I’ve got a decent record here, get a lot of bounce there,” Lyon said. “I felt like the wicket was going to offer a bit of bounce for myself, but I’d like to see what [English spin bowler Will] Jacks does.”
Australian coach Andrew McDonald and stand-in skipper Steve Smith.Credit: Getty Images
Bailey stressed Lyon’s omission was based on conditions, as it was for the third Test against the West Indies in Jamaica.
“Very much it’s a one-Test decision – Nath will play in Adelaide,” Bailey said.
“It’s how you think you’ll structure up the resources and how it’s going to be used, when it gets dark here, when you think you’re going to be using seam bowlers, how many overs will get bowled in the day, when you think new ball will be available, that sort of stuff.”
O’Keeffe, commentating on Kayo Sports, could not get his head around the decision to drop Lyon.
“I can’t agree with the non-selection of a spinner on a dry Australian pitch,” O’Keeffe said. “I know it’s a day-nighter with the pink ball, but I just can’t come to terms with it, I’m sorry.”
Waugh said it was an “unnecessary” move.
“It looks a good batting surface, so I would expect when the ball gets to 30 to 40 overs old it will be hard work for the seamers, and we know England like to play an aggressive style of game, so you need to change the tempo of the innings and the tempo of your bowling,” Waugh said.
Cummins, though initially left out of the squad, came into calculations for this Test late in the week as he progressed through the latter stages of his recovery plan. It reached a point where selectors explored how many overs he could bowl, and if that would be enough without placing strain on the other quicks.
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Cummins, who is now in the phase of bowling on back-to-back days, bowled during the afternoon break in the nets.
“If you’re going to bowl them here [in the nets], can it be there [out on the field]?” Bailey said.
“The key factors were: what does that look like for post-this, and are you accentuating that risk going forward, and what are the uncontrollables in a game? Does that put other players under pressure?
“It’s one where we can’t budge on. It would be a hard number of overs.”
By erring on the side of caution, selectors gave Cummins the best part of another fortnight to build condition for a Test return.
“It’s one of those ones – the longer the better – and whenever we make that decision to play, that’s obviously being in a really controlled environment in the nets where you can be really structured around the breaks and how you want it,” Bailey said.
“There’s the risk when you go into games there’s some things you can control, and some things that are taken out of your control.”
Bailey was non-committal on the future of opener Usman Khawaja, who batted in the nets on Thursday.
“He very much felt, because it’s a guilt, there’s your own performance, but when you’re injured and you feel like you’ve let the team down, and I think that was something he was conscious of,” Bailey said. “If it happened again it would be an awful feeling. Sitting this one out buys time to get it right and build up from there.”
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