Australian spinning ace Nathan Lyon has decided to not watch the ICC World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand. The Baggy Greens finished third in the points table, below New Zealand, which ceased them to become the finalists in the first edition of the ICC competition. The Australians fell short of only 0.8% from the Kiwis. New Zealand progressed into the finals even after winning fewer games than Australia.
Nathan Lyon won’t be watching the WTC finals
After analysing the points, it was noticed that Australia were penalised for points due to their slow over-rate against India during their Boxing Day Test in 2020. If not for the deducted points, Australia might have been the second finalist in the WTC this year. Australia won 8 matches in comparison to New Zealand’s 7. Nathan Lyon, on a recent podcast with The Unplayable, stated that India are the best Team in the world. He added that, however, if a duke ball is used in the finals then New Zealand will stand a chance to win it against the “Men in Blue”.
“Not gonna watch [the WTC final]… I think the best team in the world is India. I was under the impression that the team that finishes on top chooses the ball. So if it was Australia vs New Zealand, we wouldn’t have picked the Dukes ball because of the quality of swing bowling in New Zealand. Its little things like that will play a massive role in the game. If they play with the Dukes ball New Zealand will come into play,” said Nathan Lyon.
Duke ball is used in West Indies and England. In India, the SG ball is used and in countries like Australia and New Zealand, a kookaburra ball is used. The Duke ball is hand-stitched, which favours the swing. ICC is yet to announce which ball will be used for the finals.
