Australia is determined to resolve a decade of unfinished business in their pursuit of reclaiming the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Australia has not held the Border-Gavaskar Trophy since the 2014-15 series, which they won 2-0. Since then, they have suffered consecutive series defeats to India on home soil. Notably, in the 2020-21 series, India famously rebounded from being bowled out for 36 in Adelaide to secure the series with remarkable victories at Melbourne Cricket Ground and Gabba, along with a gritty draw in Sydney.

For this generation of Australian cricketers, a series win over India remains a significant unachieved goal. Current captain Pat Cummins, along with others, has yet to lift the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, despite claiming the World Test Championship (WTC) title in the one-off match at The Oval last year.

“It’s been ten years of unfinished business, it’s been a long time, and I know we’re extremely hungry to turn things around especially here at home,” Lyon was quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

“Don’t get me wrong, India is an absolute superstar side and extremely challenging but I’m extremely hungry to turn things around and make sure we get that trophy back,” he added.

“Feel like we are a different team to a couple of years ago, we are on a journey of becoming a great Australian cricket team. We’re definitely not there but we are along that journey and have been playing some decent cricket,” the 36-year-old off-spinner said.

Lyon praised India’s ability to produce some world-class players and singled out Yashasvi Jaiswal among the newer names.

“I haven’t come across him [Jaiswal] yet, but that will be a massive challenge for all us bowlers,” Lyon said.

Nathan Lyon is eager to leverage the insights he gained from England’s Tom Hartley during his time with Lancashire as he prepares to face India later this year.

“The way he played against England, I watched that quite closely and thought that was quite amazing. I had some really good chats with Tom Hartley about different ways he went about it to different guys which I found quite interesting,” he noted.

“I love talking about cricket, so if I can talk to someone who has played Test cricket I might be able to pick up something I’m not aware of. There’s so much knowledge floating around this game that we can always tap into,” he said.

Lyon knows that this could work in reverse for next year’s Ashes, but when asked if he thought the conversations about India would prove valuable, he added, “If the plans we’ve spoken about come true, then I think it will be.”

Veteran Australian cricket team spinner Nathan Lyon ignored India while choosing the finalists for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 and said that he expects a summit clash between Australia and Pakistan. In a recent video, Lyon was asked to predict the two sides who may end up playing each other in the final of the competition and he said that his first choice is obviously Australia. He admitted that he was biased in the answer and added that he thinks Australia will face Pakistan. He picked Pakistan because he believes their spinners will have a good show in the tournament and he even namedropped star batter Babar Azam.

“For the T20 finals team, Australia obviously because I’m quite biased towards them. I think it will be I’m going to go with Pakistan. In those conditions, quality spin bowlers, but also electric batters like Babar Azam,” said Lyon in a video shared by Prime Video Sports Australia.

Lyon further predicted that this year’s tournament may see a team getting the highest total in T20I history and also backed Australia T20I skipper Mitchell Marsh to have a brilliant tournament.

“I think early on in the tournament we may see the highest score in T20. I’m going to go, Mitchell Marsh, I think the power that he has with the bat but also the skill he has with the ball in hand as well. So, go well Mitch,” he added.

Following is the list of the T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final picks of experts:

Ambati Rayudu: India, England, New Zealand, South Africa

Brian Lara: India, England, West Indies, Afghanistan

Paul Collingwood: England, West Indies, Australia, India

Sunil Gavaskar: India, Australia, England, West Indies

Chris Morris: India, South Africa, Pakistan, Australia

Matthew Hayden: Australia, India, England, South Africa

Aaron Finch: India, Australia, England, West Indies

Mohammad Kaif: India, Pakistan, Australia, England

Tom Moody: Australia, India, South Africa, England

S Sreesanth: India, Pakistan, Australia, England

Australia defeated India in the World Test Championship final at The Oval in June 2023. India, who were eyeing their first ICC trophy in a decade, got edged past by the mighty Australians by 209 runs. However, the road victory was not easy one for Australia as star India batter Virat Kohli was standing in their way. Pat Cummins and co gave a target of 444, where India got reduced to 164/3 at Stumps on Day 4. On the final day of the match, India needed 280 with Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane standing unbeaten at the crease.

Despite Australia being on driver’s seat, it was not a one-sided contest as everyone had hopes from Kohli. However, the Aussie bowlers bounced back and bundled out India for 234 and denied them another ICC trophy.

Speaking on the third season of ‘The Test’, a popular cricket documentary series on Amazon Prime Video, some Australian cricketers opened up about the Day 5 of the WTC final.

Steve Smith: “If you look at people chasing the total, Virat Kohli is up there with the best, if not the best.”

Justin Langer: “He’s been a killer against Australia.”

Nathan Lyon: “He is super competitive and doesn’t give you an inch. No one comes close to him.”

Scott Boland: “Going into that last day, we still thought that if they got on a roll, Kohli could still pull off that chase.”

In the WTC final, Australia batter Travis Head scored 163 in the first innings and ended up winning the Player of the Match award. Apart from this, he also guided Australia to the ODI World Cup 2023 title with a century in the summit clash against India.

The performance that Head has delivered over the past few months, he believes that the seeds of it were sown early in 2023 when he came with the Test team, a hard-fought series that Australia lost 1-2.

“I think a lot of of that has come from the Test tour last year, spending time here and working on things and also being a bit older, understanding my game and its blueprint and how you want to go about it and being content and my family being around, all those things,” said Head.

(With PTI Inputs)