Australia’s cricket selectors took the soft decision to drop Nathan Lyon to recall Scott Boland.
That’s the opinion of Darren Berry – the great Victorian wicketkeeper – who believes the national brains trust should have broken up Australia’s NSW bowling trio of the past decade, featuring captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, rather than omitting Lyon – the sixth-greatest wicket-taker in Test history, with 573 scalps.
“Forget the bullshit about Boland’s justified selection,” Berry said. “Boland 100 per cent deserves to be in the team. But they won’t make the tough decision between the three greats.”
After romping to a 214-run first Test victory and having the Proteas on the ropes at 6-110, Australia let the hosts off the hook as the home side declared at 9-425 to move to seemingly an unlosable position at the end of day three of the rain-interrupted Test.
The comeback came after captain Temba Bavuma’s outstanding 179 and the spirited showings of lower-order pair Marco Jansen (85) and Simon Harmer (82).
While Boland finished with the impressive figures of 5-81, the fighting display from the Proteas shone a spotlight on Australia’s decision to leave out Lyon, with Cummins finding 15 overs between part-timers Matt Renshaw (0-33), Nic Maddinson (0-24) and Marnus Labuschagne (1-8) in an attempt to give a reprieve to his quicks and buy a wicket. Batting all-rounder Beau Webster finished with 0-43 from 19 overs.
It also came after Josh Hazlewood (0-43) battled sickness, which restricted the right-arm quick to 14 overs.
The decision to leave Lyon out was made in large part because of the ugly weather forecast and the green, furry wicket at St George’s Park. Just 43 overs were bowled on the opening two days.
It also came after he took 2-58 in the first innings of the first Test in Durban before going wicketless in the second innings.
But Berry, who kept to Shane Warne during the leg-spinner’s great career and played a pivotal role in Lyon’s entry to first-class cricket, slammed the decision to leave the off-spinner out and labelled it short-sighted.
“It’s tough when you’ve got legends like Starc, Hazelwood and Cummins. How can you leave them out?” he said. “But my great friend Shane Warne had a saying, and I believe in it: ‘If it seems, it will spin.’
“We used to go to the Gabba and we’d [Victoria] make the mistake year after year of playing four quicks because the wicket at the Gabba in Shield was a green seamer. If three quicks can’t do the job, why do you need four?
“And Warne always said, and he’s right, and so is Nathan, that bounce is a spinner’s most lethal weapon. And a spinner can be just as damaging as a quick bowler.
“I think they’re trying to manage the loads of the three legends. So we’ll play Boland as well so we can spread the load. I think Nathan has been harshly treated.”
Former Test left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe agreed.
“We’ve missed a trick, haven’t we, by not having a spinner in the side,” O’Keefe said. “I just question whether we are picking a bowling attack that is only looking at the first session and a half of a game of cricket.”
Having been an automatic selection in the team since exploding onto the international circuit by taking 5-34 in Galle in 2011, Lyon’s future in the side has increasingly been a talking point after missing five of Australia’s past 10 Tests.
The 38-year-old’s hamstring injury played a part in missing the final two Tests of last summer’s Ashes, but the off-spinner was also infamously left out of the XI for the pink-ball fixtures in Brisbane and Jamaica during the past 18 months.
Lyon also has just six wickets at an average of 40 in three Tests in 2026. While those numbers aren’t necessarily cause for alarm, the veteran tweaker’s six scalps have come every 89 balls – the second-worst strike rate in a calendar year during his decorated 16-year career.
It’s why Stuart MacGill, who took 208 wickets in just 44 Tests, said Lyon might have to cop the exclusion on the chin.
“Nathan Lyon got no wickets on the last day of the last Test, so I don’t think he’s done himself any favours there,” MacGill said.
“I think the big thing when you’re a spin bowler, and you’re wanting to get into a team or wanting to retain your place in the team, you have to take wickets.
“You’ve got to say it was a shame there wasn’t a spin bowler there, but you don’t pick people who aren’t taking wickets. That’s the bottom line. And all of our quicks are, and that’s why they’ve got a go.”
Berry, however, insisted Lyon was as hungry as ever and urged Australia’s selectors to rotate the “big three” rather than exclude the nation’s second-highest wicket taker of all time.
“Ages aren’t relevant to me if you are still fit enough and hungry enough,” Berry said. “If your fitness has dropped off and your work ethic and that’s starting to waver, it’s time to go.
“I know for a fact that Nathan Lyon, since his injury, has trained harder than he ever has and he’s still as hungry as he ever was.
“I just honestly believe that if you’ve got a quality spinner, you pick them in a Test match in a Shield game every day of the week, and I think four quicks is a mistake.
“Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins are superstars, [and] combined with Lyon, the greatest quartet ever. But maybe instead of leaving Lyon out, why don’t they rotate the quicks each Test match? Scotty Boland would be the first picked.”
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Friday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.