McDonald backs Lyon despite Darwin struggles

Australia's second-most successful Test bowler Nathan Lyon (568 wickets at 30.32) was found wanting in a tough Test loss against Bangladesh in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 series.

The bowler had figures of 1/125, whereas his opposite number off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz played an instrumental role in Bangladesh's win with his 5/66 in the third innings. 

Besides going for 102 runs in the first innings, Lyon struggled in maintaining his pivotal role for the team at home: applying pressure by controlling the scoring rate.

Australia head coach Andrew McDonald sympathised with the bowler, adding that Bangladesh were exceptional in handling the veteran spinner while the conditions leaned in favour of the batters.

"I think they played him exceptionally well. As a whole, their batting unit even against our quicks, they played the ball late, they were very patient, (and) disciplined. And then they pounced whent there was a scoring option, when we gave too much width

"I think control from that end, given how blustery it was. There wasn't a lot in the surface at that point of time for Nathan. So it's very hard to judge one-off sample sizes to the function of that attack. I think they (Bangladesh) played very well, and that's credit to them."

Lyon wasn't the only Australia regular left wanting in Darwin, with senior batter Marnus Labuschagne, whose scoring has dipped in recent years, also under scrutiny.

The batter fell for one in the first innings, and while he got a start in the second, he couldn't move on and fell for 31.

"I think it was 31 he got in the second innings, and up until the point he got out, you'd sit there and say he was looking good," McDonald discussed Labuschagne's knock.

"He was moving well, he's clipping off his pads, he was getting back through the ball down the ground. So it's easy for me to sit here and try to defend that, but ultimately it's 31. It's not a big score. He's lacked runs. He feels that. We feel that. We're working incredibly hard as a coaching group," the Australia head coach added.

Lyon and Labuschagne's run lead to a larger conversation around the makeup of the side. While Australia have experience aplenty, their average age sits closer to 34, and the lack of fresh faces has some worried, including Ricky Ponting who stated on Channel 7 that, "I was on the record at the end of last summer thinking that this was the ideal time to start to regenerate this team. "

But McDonald cautioned against hasty changes into the setup based on one performance.

"It's always going to be a conversation, the age profile of the team" McDonald said. "A loss doesn't help that. But these players have got a fair bit of cricket, left in them. And it's I suppose how we navigate through it."

Reflecting on the situation, McDonald stated that it was natural for people to call for changes into the setup after a loss, but there were other aspects that needed to be kept in mind before decisions were made.

"There's always going to be a call for change at the back of a loss. There's always gonna be an emotion around that from the outside, and even internally. Our guys are sitting in the dressing room, and they're feeling it. You feel a Test loss. It means a lot to them to play for Australia, so let's not lose that in all this as well. 

"It's how you move forward and ultimately our next decision will be our most important, as to what we do. How we get them prepped, how much recovery time they need to get prepped for the next game.

"The easy option is to call for change, a lot of people call for change when we aren't winning. They're entitled to do that as well on the back of a performance like that. So that's part of our lot."

The second Test between Australia and Bangladesh will start from 22 August at Mackay.