Veteran Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon said he was “absolutely filthy” after learning he had been left out of the second Test of the Ashes series against England in Brisbane on Thursday. Lyon also explained whether he had spoken with the Australian team management after the decision.Australia opted for an all-pace attack for the Brisbane Test, leaving out Lyon. The team made two changes from the eight-wicket win in the opening Test in Perth. Michael Neser came in for Lyon, and Josh Inglis replaced injured opener Usman Khawaja.
Lyon said he got to know about his omission only after reaching the ground on the morning of the match.“I found out as I came to ground, as I always do, pretty early, about 12 o’clock, and found out about 12.30,” Nathan Lyon said to 7Cricket.George Bailey, the chair of Australia’s National Selection Panel, said the pace of recent Test matches had limited Lyon’s chance to influence games on seam-friendly surfaces.Reacting to that, Lyon said he has not had a detailed conversation with the team management yet and is taking time to process the decision.“No, yeah, absolutely filthy, but, yeah, can’t do anything about it. So, yeah, just hope I can play my role in making sure I can get the guys ready and do whatever I can to make sure that we get the right result here,” Lyon said.“To be honest, I haven’t really sat down with Ronnie [Andrew McDonald] or George yet. I’m letting things settle down in my own head, and trying to make sure that, as I said, doing whatever I can to make sure the guys out in the middle there, representing Australia, do the right thing and get the right result for us,” Lyon added.“The communication is always there, I just hadn’t had it in me to sit down with the coach and George at the moment,” Lyon furher said, adding, “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.”In the first day of the match, Joe Root scored his first Test century in Australia and his 40th overall, taking England past 300 runs in their first innings.
