Don’t panic! Australia’s Lyon urges calm in face of ‘Bazball’

SYDNEY (Reuters): Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon believes the ‘Bazball’ style of play only works if the opposition panics and has urged his team mates to remain calm in the face of England’s aggressive batting in the upcoming Ashes series.

England have won 10 of their last 12 tests since captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum took over and introduced the high-risk, high-reward style of play.

“You look at the way they played against New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan, they have been able to force the opposition into panicking,” Lyon told Australian Associated Press (AAP).

“We just have to worry about us. Control what we can control and worry about what is in our backyard and not be worried about what they’re doing. “If we make sure we have really good plans and stick to them, everything will go okay.”

The 35-year-old said Australia needed to focus on executing their own gameplan and avoid the kind of batting collapses that marred their tour of India earlier this year.

“We shouldn’t panic anyway,” Lyon said. “We panicked in India and we saw what happened. If we can learn from that experience and play our way and our brand it will be okay.”

Lyon said he was not interested in pre-series chatter about England arranging flatter pitches or shorter boundaries or changing their approach to counter Australia. “We have to worry about us,” he added. “We will be really well planned … I think we will be in really good shape.

“We’re not buying into the fact they have to do it against Australian bowlers. We just keep nailing our process and worrying about us.” Lyon has played in the last six Ashes series, winning three and drawing one. Australia’s bid to retain the urn for the fourth straight series begins at Edgbaston on June 16.