Australia’s veteran spinner Nathan Lyon has disclosed that he reached out to head coach Andrew McDonald via text message and told him about his preparations for the 50-over World Cup that is taking place in India. The 35-year-old Lyon has been ruled out of action after he suffered a calf injury during the second Ashes Test at Lord's. However, the veteran off-spinner is assured to return to the cricket field as he will play for the North District Cricket Club in grade cricket next weekend.
Lyon disclosed that he directly texted Australia’s coach McDonald after getting to know that left-arm orthodox spinner Ashton Agar had been ruled out of the ongoing ODI World Cup due to his calf injury. Marnus Labuschagne was asked to come in as a replacement for injured Ashton Agar in the World Cup squad. As a result, Australia came in to play the mega event with only one specialist spinner, leg-spinner Adam Zampa.
"I sent Andrew McDonald a text message the other day when I saw Ashton Agar was ruled out," Lyon said.
"I said, 'Just to let you know, I'm back bowling 10 overs, I'm right to go, 100 percent. If that happened, I'd do anything to go over and play the World Cup. The squad they've got there looks pretty exciting â€æ and I'm pretty excited about tonight, to be honest. I'd be more than comfortable going in there and doing it if I had to," Lyon added.
"But in saying that, there has to be a lot of things go wrong, so let's hope for Australia's sake that doesn't happen. Hopefully, they go out there and have a really good campaign."
The Australian team are currently facing India in the World Cup 2023 game, taking place at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. After batting first against India, they only managed to post a below-average total of 199 runs.