Spinner Nathan Lyon will be pinching himself when he dons the baggy green cap of Australia and joins the 100-Test club for the fourth and final match against India at the Gabba on Friday.
Australia ruthlessly completed a 159-run victory over West Indies in the first Test in Barbados on Friday after Josh Hazlewood's five-wicket masterclass broke the hosts' resistance on a pitch that deteriorated into a bowler's paradise.
Off-spinner Nathan Lyon claimed career-best figures of eight for 50 to help Australia bundle out India for 189 on the first day of the second Test at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Smith dislocated his right little finger in last month's World Test Championship final and will be required to wear a splint for five weeks, Cricket Australia said.
The strategy of dropping Nathan Lyon and opting for a twin spin attack, in the form of the inexperienced Xavier Doherty and Glenn Maxwell, for the Test completely backfired on the team.
'Lyon has over 400 Test wickets and dismissed India's best batter in this crucial moment.'
Ace Australian spinner Nathan Lyon says he and India's Ravichandran Ashwin are similar yet different type of bowlers, so comparisons should not be made between the two.
Australia opener Aaron Finch believes off-spinner Nathan Lyon will play an important role considering the amount of bounce on offer in the pitch in the ongoing second Test in Perth.
Nathan Lyon claims Australian record with 142nd Test wicket.
Former captain Tim Paine has been appointed coach of the Australia 'A' team for this season with the country approaching a transition to a new generation of players as a handful of Test stalwarts near retirement.
Starc also pointed out that the wicket did not assist pacers that much with the new ball and expressed concerns over Nathan Lyon's injury on the final day of the Test and the setback to Hazlewood.
The overwhelmingly bowler-friendly Melbourne pitch on which 20 wickets fell on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test has prompted Kevin Pietersen and Dinesh Kartik to point out the selective criticism of Indian tracks when spinners get wickets in a heap.
Batting under lights on a lively track, Australia then suffered a collapse of their own and finished day two on 99-6 for an overall lead of 181 as they look to complete a series sweep.
'We've gone head-to-head many times in different conditions around the world. I've definitely learned from him.'
It took nearly a year longer than Australia hoped but Nathan Lyon ended his agonising wait for a 400th Test victim in style on Saturday during a match-winning four-wicket haul that sent England crashing to a stinging Ashes defeat at the Gabba.
Australia fast bowler Scott Boland believes his team is still well-placed for victory against India with two days left in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
Australian spinner Nathan Lyon wants the selectors to go with a two-spin attack against India in the upcoming four-Test series, which gets underway with the opening Test in Chennai on February 22.
Nathan Lyon claimed six for 60 to bowl Australia to an emphatic series-equalling seven-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the second and final Test on Thursday.
Australia stormed to an eight-wicket victory in the second Ashes Test on Sunday to take a 2-0 series lead as England succumbed on day four to a pace blitz from unlikely hero Michael Neser.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli thwarted Australia in a diligent partnership to push India to a position of strength and a 166-run lead at the close of day three of the first Test on Saturday.
Sri Lanka, who had conceded a 109-run lead, were bowled out for 113 in their second innings
'When Nathan Lyon was bowling I saw two or three balls without any drift. So, I thought of taking on Lyon so that we get some quick runs.'
Bazball is in the firing line, with former players and pundits decrying the high-risk game on Australia's spicy pitches.
In an astonishing third day of the topsy-turvy fourth Ashes Test in Melbourne played in swirling winds and burning heat, Australia's Nathan Lyon sent England into a tailspin on Saturday.
Rohit Sharma, who joined the team on Day 3 of the Test, was present to witness the historic win and shared a heartwarming moment with Virat Kohli, who returned to form with a brilliant century.
After he whipped off the bails to run out AB de Villiers, Nathan Lyon leapt over him in celebration, dropping the ball on his opponent before joining his team mates in a jig of joy.
Australian captain Tim Paine and Nathan Lyon visited Wingello, a town of about 500 people in hard-hit New South Wales, on Wednesday, days after it was devastated by the flames.
'The hardest place to play in the world is India.'
Images from Day 5 in the fourth Test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday.
Off-spinner Nathan Lyon claimed seven wickets (7-152) to help the Aussies win the first Test at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
Konstas, 20, misses out after a poor tour with the bat in the West Indies, while Weatherald has been included after topping the Sheffield Shield runs list
'As a captain it makes my life a lot easier knowing you've got lots of settled players there.'
Australian offie Nathan Lyon's deadly performance after tea sent India reeling on Day 2 of the fourth Test in New Delhi. He is our top performer of the day.
The governing body also introduced harsher sanctions for ball-tampering at its five-day Annual Conference in Dublin.
He was dropped from the team after the opening Test itself, but Australian spinner Nathan Lyon says his confidence has only gone up as he has managed to get the wicket of Indian veteran Sachin Tendulkar in the ongoing series.
Australia overwhelmed the West Indies by 133 runs in the second Test in Grenada on Sunday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series with one match remaining.
IMAGES from Day 1 of the 1st Ashes Test played in Perth on Friday.
Nathan Lyon took 5-68 as a dominant Australia dismissed New Zealand for 251 before the home batsmen took over to extend their lead to 243 by the close of play on the third day of the third and final Test in Sydney on Sunday. Already 2-0 down in the series after thumping defeats in Perth and Melbourne, New Zealand have been ravaged by illness and injury and now face a huge battle to avoid a third heavy loss before they head home. Images from Day 3 of the third Test in Sydney on Sunday.
Pujara recalled the struggles made by his parents to support his career.
Despite the recent injury setbacks, senior off-spinner Nathan Lyon believes that the current Australian team is the 'tightest group' that he has been a part of and is certainly in a much better space than what it was two years back, when India triumphed 1-2 in Tests.
