Nathan Lyon is getting ready to play a whole season of County Championship with Lancashire next year. He’ll be joining forces with his long-time rival Jimmy Anderson. Lyon also wants to keep playing Test cricket until the 2027 Ashes series in England.

He’s also planning to play in the BBL for his new team, Melbourne Renegades, against his old team, Sydney Sixers, who he says basically let him go. This will happen just before his Test match against Pakistan in mid-December.

Lyon is 35 years old and has made a successful return to Sheffield Shield cricket. He hadn’t played a first-class game since he injured his calf during the Ashes series at Lord’s in late June. Australia has several Tests lined up, but there’s a gap in their schedule from mid-March 2024 until the next home summer.

This gap provides a chance for Test specialists like Lyon to play county cricket. He has a contract offer from Lancashire, which he’s likely to sign.

Lyon stated, “There’s an offer on the table. I really wanted to see how this week went. It all went really well. So that’s a conversation when I get home with my wife tomorrow night. [We’ll] have a chat about heading over there. It’s looking pretty good that I’ll head over to Lancs hopefully, we’ll dot all the i’s, cross all the t’s, get that signed and head over there to play with Jimmy Anderson which will be good. At this stage, it’s a full season [contract] but there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge. But my intentions are to go over, play county cricket and go there and keep learning.”

Lyon was set to play county cricket earlier this year but decided to stay at home. His calf injury was a big setback, but it has motivated him to keep playing Test cricket, especially with India and England as his future targets.

Lyon wants to play as much cricket as he can. He has two more Shield games scheduled and is also looking forward to his BBL debut for Renegades.

Additionally, Lyon has been following the ODI World Cup as a fan and not waiting by the phone for a call to play. He expressed delight in seeing England lose to India in the tournament.