Lyon sidelined: Analysing latest bold call from Aussie selectors

The sight of Aiden Markram's middle stump lying flat on the damp St George's Park pitch was about as visually striking an endorsement Scott Boland could have made for Australia's latest selection swerve.

Before facing up to the visitors' fourth-choice paceman under Sunday's grey skies, Markram was averaging more against Australia than any batter had over the previous 34 years. Boland needed four balls to deceive him with a pitched-up, scrambled-seam delivery.

Two days after David Bedingham revealed his awe at the bowling line-up Australia assembled in Durban, South Africa's No.3, attempting to cover the kind of nip that undid Markram, then edged behind a quick who had not made the cut in the first Test. 

Two deliveries out of Boland's admittedly stunning 20-ball first-day burst is not enough of a sample size to judge the validity of Australia dropping Nathan Lyon at the last decade's most spin-friendly Test venue outside Asia (minimum three Tests).

Certainly Pat Cummins' good fortune to be given the luxury of inserting his opponents in dream seam-bowling conditions, and avoiding the prospect of bowling last without a frontline spinner, makes it less likely George Bailey's panel will regret this one.

But what it does reinforce is this Australian leadership coterie's willingness to dodge convention and make the type of tough call that would surely have left Lyon dejected on Sunday morning.

Breaking up Test cricket's most successful all-time bowling quartet – the 607 wickets taken by Cummins-Starc-Hazlewood-Lyon together is almost 200 more than the next best group – when all four are fully fit and coming off a 214-run win ranks as one of their bolder decisions.  

Cummins' call to bowl first at the World Cup final in Ahmedabad in 2023, during a tournament where batting during the day's baking heat had been conventional wisdom, is one of the few that might top it.

Even allowing for forecast rain and Test cricket having never been played in Gqeberha this early in the South African 'summer', the fact Australia have decided their best route to 20 wickets is without a man who has 573 of them on a track that generally turns is significant.

When Lyon was omitted at full fitness for the Jamaica and Brisbane Tests last year, the use of a pink ball and its propensity to offer seamers plenty under lights gave selectors cover to go spinless. Australia won both those Tests comfortably.

But in 136 Tests between mid-January 2012 and that Kingston Test in July 2025, Australia picked at least one specialist spinner in all but one of those games – Lyon was injured when they did not select one at Manchester during the 2023 Ashes.

They have now gone without one in five of their last 10 Tests, with Lyon fit for all but two of those.

The shift of a frontline spinner becoming an optional extra in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) conditions is only part of the dynamic.

In Durban, Nic Maddinson's bolt-from-the-blue recall as an opener allowed Matthew Renshaw to go into the middle order where dealing with the Proteas' dual spinners shaped as the major batting challenge.

It proved a masterstroke with the Queenslander peeling off scores of 190 and 82 in the 214-run win.

Not every move has proved so immediately effective. Cooper Connolly's inclusion over Todd Murphy for the second Test against Sri Lanka in Galle last year did not pay off, while Nathan McSweeney's trial as an opener against a Jasprit Bumrah-led India attack lasted only three Tests.

Taking Ashton Agar to India in 2023 only for Matthew Kuhnemann to replace him mid-tour, and on the same tour leaving out Travis Head for Renshaw in the series opener are other examples of imperfect picks.

Criticism, most notably from ex-players, accompanied most of those moves. Coach Andrew McDonald has acknowledged their logic might not always be popular and he has been at pains to insist the team's brains trust do not have a 'holier than thou' approach to selection.

"If my job was to line everyone up and get everyone aligned internally, externally, it wouldn't be a nice space to live in," McDonald told cricket.com.au last month. "I think internally (aligning people) is the most important."

For others, the criticism jars given Australia have won nine of 11 Tests during this current World Test Championship cycle and competed in its last two finals. Matthew Hayden's strong condemnation of the Maddinson pick was the latest example.

"I think (we're) unfairly judged a fair bit from a group of past players … that put the bullet through a lot of players," Travis Head said before the Durban Test. "But that's what they're paid to do. Some of them need a job, so they go after us, and that's totally fine.

"This group is strong enough to deal with those sort of things. That's how it is. It's unfortunate, sometimes, to have some of that feedback from a generation of players that we have huge respect for, but that's the caper."

Even amid what was surely a crushing blow for Australia's oldest Test player, Lyon was the first to shake Boland's hand after the move was confirmed on Sunday morning. He will not be the last player to have to put disappointment to one side under Australia's current regime.

Qantas tour of South Africa 2026

All matches to be broadcast exclusively in Australia on Kayo and Fox Cricket

First Test: Australia won by 214 runs

Second Test: October 18-22, St George's Park, Gqeberha, 7pm AEDT (10am local)

Third Test: October 27-31, Newlands, Cape Town, 7:30pm AEDT (10:30am local)

South Africa squad for second Test: Temba Bavuma (c), Marques Ackerman, David Bedingham, Matthew Breetzke, Corbin Bosch, Gerald Coetzee, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Anrich Nortje, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Kyle Verreynne.

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Sam Harper, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (second Test onwards), Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nic Maddinson, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster