Australian off spinner Nathan Lyon became only the fourth spinner in the history of Test cricket to achieve the feat of 500 Test wickets. Playing in the first Test of the 3-match series, Lyon picked up 5 wickets and crossed the 500-wicket mark on Sunday, 17 December.
Lyon is only the second spinner after Shane Warner, and overall on the third bowler from Australia to reach the elite feat. Speaking about the spinner, Australia captain Pat Cummins backed the player to play at least 4 more years and said that Lyon will reach 700 wickets and might even break Shane Warne’s Test record of 708 wickets.
“Still got another four or five years at least, with ten games a year,” Cummins spoke about Lyon as the spinner looked on after the conclusion of the 1st Test match.
“I still think you’ve got 40 or 50 Test matches, that’s four or five years with 10 (matches) a year,” Cummins further added.
“Averaging four or five a game, so a couple of hundred (wickets) – that’s 700,” concluded the captain.
Lyon laughed at the prospect of picking 700 wickets or for that matter equal the legendary Shane Warner. However, it was Warne, who had backed the spinner to achieve the Herculian task back in the 2019 Ashes itself.
“I think he (Lyon) is a chance,” Warne had told cricket.com.au back in 2019, when Lyon had not played 100 Test matches.
“If you do the stats – if he plays another 85 or 90 Tests, and takes four wickets per game, that’s 360 wickets – so he’ll get me,” Warne had said.
“I’d love to watch someone get my record, that would be fantastic because it would mean they’ve done bloody well for Australia for a long period of time,” the legendary spinner had added at the time.
Warne is currently the highest wicket-taker for Australia and the second highest wicket-taker in the history of cricket, behind Muttiah Muralitharan. Lyon, currently 36, still has 199 wickets to go for his 700th scalp in Test cricket.
