Lyon the headline act at Australia's new fortress

Nathan Lyon will return to statistically his best venue in Australia for next summer's blockbuster Border-Gavaskar series opener as the hosts bid to avoid slipping to a decade-long winless streak against India.

Australia can draw on the experiences of five players in their current XI who were involved in their most recent Test series triumph against the world's number one Test nation, back in 2014-15, and Lyon is the most experienced of the lot, having played against them 27 times across a Baggy Green career that began in 2011.

Just one of those Tests was at WA's still relatively new Perth Stadium, where Australia are four wins from as many matches and where Lyon put in a player-of-the-match performance with eight wickets in 2018, the first time the venue hosted a Test.

Fast forward five-and-a-half years and Lyon boasts 27 wickets in four matches at the 60,000-seat stadium, while operating at his best average (18.00) and strike-rate (41.6) of any ground in Australia.

"We've been able to play on some really nice wickets there, and I was able to get a little bit of spin and bounce there," he told cricket.com.au. "There's not too many other surfaces around Australia like it. It's pretty nice. The (groundsmen) there do a really good job, especially over the last couple of years."

Australia let the Border-Gavaskar Trophy slip through their fingers when India last toured in 2020-21, surrendering a one-nil series lead before failing to bowl India out on the final day of both the third and fourth Tests, squandering a number of gilt-edged opportunities when both matches looked theirs for the taking.

It made it consecutive series wins in Australia for India – the only two times they've ever triumphed Down Under.

"I think we're a totally different team now, under Pat (Cummins') captaincy," Lyon said. "We're a nice, calm, collected cricket team. I feel like we've all grown up and got better, more experienced.

"If we try and learn from our mistakes in the past and make sure that as a bowling unit we put pressure on them in different ways, hopefully we'll be able to take a few more chances this time.

"I look at a couple of series in India (as well) and I just go, 'If we did this a little bit different, a little bit better, then potentially we could've (won)'.

"But it's quite easy to sit back and say that. It's about us making sure we're well prepared. I'm looking forward to this one. We're going to be coming off a long break so the guys are going to be itching to get back out there and play some decent Test matches … and I feel like with the way Andrew (McDonald, head coach) and Pat have the Test team going, there's a lot of confidence there, there's a lot of belief there."

Lyon took a 10-wicket haul in the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington earlier this month and the 36-year-old, who now sits on 530 Test wickets, insists he is still improving as he continues to learn his craft.

Waiting in the wings for Australia are a host of spinners eager to prove themselves as the heir to his throne, and after a 46-wicket Sheffield Shield campaign, WA offie Corey Rocchiccioli has added his name to that list, though Lyon remains unperturbed by the increasing competition for his spot.

"He's been pretty impressive this summer, and he's definitely thrown himself into (national) calculations," he said. "(WA) are the pinnacle of state cricket at the moment and the 'Roc' has got a lot of credit to take for that … he seems to be getting better each and every day.

"I've got my own goals, and I know I can get better. I know there are a few things that I want to work on to get better, so I feel like I've got a lot of cricket left in me.

"But it's nice watching young offies going around, and watching how they go about it and reminding myself what I need to do to keep getting better and my understanding of it.

"And it's quite nice to see some finger spinners going really well in Australia. It's usually a pretty hard place to bowl spin but it looks like the spin department is going to be left in a pretty handy spot."

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