The diminishing Nathan Lyon

He's never bowled better in his career, but he's also never bowled less than now. Australia just aren't finding opportunities to use him.

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Nathan Lyon’s almost a meme in Australian cricket now. He’s slowly disappearing into the background of the national team, for a reason that has very little to do with him. He hasn’t suddenly gotten bad at cricket, or aged poorly.

In terms of wickets, only Shane Warne can look down on Lyon among Australian spinners. He’s not always been incredible, but he has some nice weapons, has shown the ability to upgrade himself, and — crucially for a modern spinner — is versatile enough to bowl in many conditions.

You could make the claim Lyon’s been bowling as well as, if not better, than ever before. But if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to see it, no one gives a shit. And right now, Lyon doesn’t bowl much. He doesn’t play as much either.

And so he’s fading like a photo of kids in a sci-fi film from the 80s about incest.

This isn’t like the time he took a seven-for and they dropped him for a bloke who would go on to take nine Test wickets and average more than 50.

This also isn’t a hangover from the fact that most Australians believe offspin is so easy that if they put down the BBQ tongs and stopped watching competitive cooking shows, they could take a three-wicket haul in their next match.

No, this is because Australian pitches have sped up games so much that chucking the ball to the spinner is hard when the quicks are almost always taking wickets.

Nathan Lyon is a slow bowler in a fast-moving world.