‘There’s still a lot of goals I want to tick off’ – Nathan Lyon

It was moving past the former of those that brought Lyon the most satisfaction. “It’s a massive personal achievement,” he said. There’ll be banter between me and Mitch tonight no doubt, can’t wait to get my phone. He’s been like a big brother for me in the Australian set-up, so no doubt there’ll be a message from him. To do what I’ve achieved so far in my career is obviously very satisfying, but there’s still a lot of goals I want to tick off.”

He also credited former Australian batsman Michael Hussey for his influence in a post-match interview that more resembled an awards ceremony speech. “It’s been an amazing friendship,” he said. “I’ve been very lucky to call Mike Hussey a mate to be honest. When I came into the Test set-up Justin Langer was the guy who put me under Mike Hussey’s wing. I’ve learned so much from Huss, it’s been an amazing friendship. It just seems to be growing more than more, I’m just very lucky to call him a mate.”

Lyon’s four wickets in six balls reduced Pakistan to 57/5, giving Australia a good chance of securing a long-awaited Test series win in Asia. Lyon said he was bowling well, but still didn’t expect to have as much success as quickly as he did.

“No, not really [expecting it] to be honest!” he said.” I knew the ball was coming out of my hand really well and the wicket was a bit tacky, so I knew that if I could bowl my best ball and hopefully hang in there and stay patient we could build pressure and hopefully crack it from both ends. But I was very fortunate to crack it early doors. Normally the later you bowl you get late rewards, but it happened in reverse today.”