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Lyon hopes for winter gains after summer pain

Having bowled more balls than anyone this summer, an 'exhausted' Nathan Lyon is hoping to improve his white-ball bowling in the off-season

An exhausted Nathan Lyon says a focus on developing his white-ball skills over the winter may also help him become a better Test bowler, although he made light of Allan Border's call for the off-spinner to "reinvent" himself during the winter.

Lyon's marathon summer, in which he bowled nearly 100 more overs than anyone else in the Marsh Sheffield Shield in addition to playing every Test match against India, ended in disappointment as NSW were trounced by Queensland in the Shield final.

Despite being named the Shield player of the season after finishing with 42 wickets at 25.97, the 33-year-old is hungry to improve after conceding he fell short of his own expectations during Australia's Test defeat to India.

After India’s batters defied Lyon and Australia's bowlers on the final day of the third and fourth Tests of their memorable series win, the off-spinner and his Blues teammates were no match for Marnus Labuschagne in the Shield final this week as the Queenslander batted for more than nine hours.

It led Border to suggest the off-spinner needs to add more variety to his arsenal.

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"He's had incredible success … but I think it's almost time just to start a bit of reinventing," Border had told Fox Cricket.

"We know he bowls his stock ball and it's superb, but I think he just needs that one that skids on straight or something different, some variety in his bowling.

"I think there's certain surfaces that he just needs a bit more variety rather than waiting on people to make a mistake."

Lyon mentioned Border's comments after collecting his player of the season award on Sunday, joking that he might start practicing left-arm orthodox spin during the off-season.

But having had dinner this week with his first state coach Darren Berry, where they looked back on his whirlwind introduction to first-class and Test cricket a decade ago, Lyon remains adamant the stock off-break that has helped him take 399 Test wickets remains his biggest weapon.

But he also suggested his quest to further himself as a limited-overs bowler and contend for a spot at two T20 World Cups in the next two years could also improve him as a long-form player.

"I didn't have the Test summer I wanted to if I'm being honest," he said after Queensland's innings-and-33-run win. "I've had a lot of time to reflect on that where I personally want to get better at.

"I'm a big one for believing in your best ball for long periods of time and you'll create chances (that way).

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"But the development of white-ball cricket around the world – I still want to put my hand up for World Cups in the shorter formats.

"I think I need to expand my game in the white-ball arena.

"In Test(s), I think you've still got to nail your consistency with your stock ball and bowl your best ball over and over. But who knows, those variations in the short forms might transfer into red-ball (cricket)."

Such was Lyon's unusual rise from Adelaide Oval curator to Test cricket within the space of less than a year in 2010 and 2011 that he has never spent a full pre-season at home, and that will remain the case if he wins selection for Australia's planned white-balls tours later this year.

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In the coming weeks, however, he will finally get some rest having bowled 645.3 overs for state and country in a season that, for Australia's leading players, effectively begun in July with a limited-overs tour to England.

And which finally ended on the third weekend in April, the latest ever finish to an Australian domestic season.

"I'm absolutely exhausted," he admitted.

"It's been a long summer, a long cricket season that started in July in England in the bubbles, but it's been a very enjoyable one and one I'm very proud of.

"Marnus and I are the first guys since 1975 to play all Tests and all the Shield games (in the same season). That's a nice little feather in our cap.”

Most overs bowled, 2020-21

Border-Gavaskar Test Series

Nathan Lyon – 187.0

Pat Cummins – 162.1

Josh Hazlewood – 144.4

Mitchell Starc – 137.0

Mohammed Siraj – 134.2

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Marsh Sheffield Shield

Nathan Lyon – 412.3

Cameron Gannon – 315.5

Jackson Bird – 298.4

Jon Holland – 296.2

Mitchell Swepson – 288.4

Marsh One-Day Cup

Tom Andrews – 48.0

Nathan Lyon – 46.0

Jackson Bird – 45.3

Wes Agar – 40.1

Pat Cummins – 36.0