Australia want ‘spicy wickets’ for the Ashes. But Cummins shuts down talk of four quicks

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Test captain Pat Cummins has all but declared Nathan Lyon will play all five Ashes Tests this summer, insisting he can’t envision a scenario under which Australia would omit the spinner and field four fast bowlers.

Lyon was dropped for Australia’s last Test in the West Indies – a pink-ball match the tourists won inside three days when Mitchell Starc took 6-9 and Scott Boland claimed a hat-trick to bowl the hosts out for 27 in Kingston.

Lyon was bitterly disappointed to miss that match, but understood the reasoning.

Earlier this week, former Australian one-day quick Kane Richardson raised eyebrows on a Cricket Australia podcast when he suggested bowler-friendly decks could greet teams this summer.

“I’m hearing word out of the Aussie camp that they’re going to want spicy wickets for the Ashes,” Richardson said on the Unplayable Podcast. “In the Shield in the last few years, it’s been tough for batting.”

Lyon had a quiet series against India last summer, taking nine wickets at 36.88, and bowled just one over in the Adelaide day-night Test.

Speculation that Australia could field four quicks is likely to surface again in coming weeks, but Cummins poured cold water on any suggestion Lyon could be left out. His Test omission in the Caribbean was the first in his Test career since 2013.

“I’d find it very unlikely that we would go away from Gaz at all this summer,” Cummins told this masthead. “Kingston was extreme: pink ball conditions, long grass, an up and down wicket.

“I’d almost guarantee there won’t be four quicks this summer, especially with a couple of all-rounders in the team as well.

“You probably need to look at the pitch and basically think it’s going to be a terrible two-and-a-half day, or a three-day pitch. In Kingston, we didn’t think the game was going to see a fourth day.

“Most games in Australia, even if it’s green, you think it could get flat and you’ll be wanting Gaz.”

Cummins said Lyon took the West Indies omission on the chin.

“I think he saw it coming a little bit,” Cummins said. “He was absolutely fine, but shattered. He wanted to be part of Starcy’s 100th Test.”

Lyon’s returns in recent years remain very strong – averaging 24.95 with the ball in 2023, 22.69 in 2024 and 24.04 this year.

Former Australian spinner and Fox Cricket commentator Kerry O’Keeffe agreed Lyon had to play.

“Nathan backs himself on bouncy pitches but if Australia was to play the four fast bowlers at Perth, on a pitch he’s done really well on, that would hurt him,” O’Keeffe said.

“I’d be inclined to go with him. I don’t want to see Australia go in with four fast bowlers too many times as it disillusions spinners and I sense his frustration.

“Having said that, it was a pragmatic call [in Kingston], and it worked in that final Test in the West Indies. But I think he must play.”

O’Keeffe said in the event Lyon was unavailable for the first Test, he would pick West Australian off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli.

“He bowls well at the WACA,” said O’Keeffe of Rocchiccioli. “Todd Murphy’s a slide bowler, I’d keep him for crusty surfaces. I’d love a wrist spinner to emerge, though. I think Tanveer Sangha has something, but he hasn’t played enough four-day cricket to be your five-day Test leg spinner. I think Matt Kuhnemann is for overseas subcontinental conditions.”

Meanwhile, Jack Edwards and Matt Kuhnemann have been added to Australia’s ODI squad ahead of Saturday’s series finale against India at the SCG. Australia leads the three match series 2-0.

Marnus Labuschagne will return to Queensland for next week’s Sheffield Shield clash with NSW at the Gabba, while Josh Hazlewood and Sean Abbott will depart Australia’s T20 squad early to prepare for a Shield match against Victoria at the SCG from November 10-13.