Lyon moves past McGrath in Australia’s wicket-takers list as he struck twice in his first over of the Adelaide Test.
Two in his first over: Lyon goes second behind Warne.
At Adelaide Oval, Nathan Lyon made a spectacular comeback to the Test team. He took two wickets in his first over, surpassing Glenn McGrath to become Australia’s second-highest wicket-taker of all time, with only Shane Warne surpassing him.
After missing two of Australia’s last three Test matches due to pink-ball day-night matches when the selectors chose all-pace attacks, Lyon has been stuck on 562 wickets for five months. In the first Test of this series in Perth, he had bowled just two overs. In Adelaide, he scored twice in six balls.
Ollie Pope’s catch to midwicket, which tied the score between Lyon and McGrath, was a gift. Ben Duckett was playing forward in defence as he drifted into off from around the wicket on a decent length, and the ball spun past the edge and struck the top of off. It was a peach. A left-hander was dismissed by a traditional offspinner.
Lyon has 564 Test wickets at that time. After 145 games, Warne finished with 708. Lyon is now ranked sixth on the global all-time list, with 600 wickets as his next goal.
Australia will have an abundance of Test cricket starting in August of next year, and Lyon has already expressed a desire to continue playing until at least the 2027 Ashes in England.
Earlier in the week he was added to Adelaide Oval’s Avenue of Honour for his 12 wickets against India at the ground in 2014.