Australia’s greatest on track to be Lyon king

NATHAN Lyon could knock myself and Muttiah Muralitharan off our perches to become the leading wicket- taker in the history of Test cricket.

I’m expecting Lyon, pictured, to bring up his 400th wicket at the SCG before celebrating his 100th Test match at the Gabba next week.

If Lyon keeps himself injury- free, I think he could easily play for another five years.

That’s about another 50 Tests, and if he continues to take four wickets per game, then that is another 200 — or maybe 250 if he has a golden five years. You put that on top of his 400 and he’s in the 600- 650 club at age 38.

And if he’s still going well then he might have a crack at me ( 708) and Murali ( 800), which would be awesome.

There’s a strong case to say Lyon is Australia’s most important player, because he’s probably the hardest to replace.

Australia is very lucky to have three quality fast bowlers — plus we’ve got a lot of other fast bowlers in the wings, like James Pattinson, who can step in and do a good job.

We’ve got Mitchell Swepson in the wings, but a spinner making his debut is a long, long way from Lyon.

David Warner, Steve Smith and Lyon are Australia’s three most important players, but I reckon Lyon is at the top of the tree.

In the past 20- odd years of world cricket the only really successful traditional off- spinners have been Graeme Swann and Lyon, whereas the others are mystery spinners.

For Lyon to accomplish what he has with an off- spinner, a bit of natural variation and an arm- ball shows what skill he has, given the reverse sweeps and the way batsmen attack in the modern game.

Lyon knows exactly what he’s doing, and he’s doing a bloody good job.