Watch: Stuart Broad, Virat Kohli, and now Nathan Lyon – the peculiar act of switching bails around made an appearance during the County Championship Division One game between Lancashire and Hampshire.

Lyon, signed up to play with Lancashire this season, was their chief wicket-taker in the first innings against Hampshire in Southampton, and picked up another in the second innings before Nick Gubbins and James Vince put on a steady stand to stall the quick fall of wickets.

With Hampshire being reduced to 49-3, Gubbins and Vince had put together a 62-run partnership at the time of writing, reducing their second-innings deficit to single figures.

“It’s an Aussie change of luck thing”

During their partnership, Lyon was seen approaching the stumps between overs, and casually flipping the bails around, an act that brought Broad and Kohli instant luck last year.

In fact, Broad had later revealed that he had learnt the trick from Lyon himself.

“I’ve heard it’s an Aussie change of luck thing,” said Broad after nabbing Marnus Labuschagne in the 2023 Ashes. “I’ve seen Nathan Lyon do it. We had a few play and misses in the morning session and we needed to make a breakthrough and I thought: ‘I’ll have a little change of the bails.’

Kohli did the same against South Africa at the end of the year, making the switch before Jasprit Bumrah struck twice, vindicating the superstition in a way.

Lyon’s switching act did not reap instant results though, as Gubbins reached his fifty in the company of Vince.

The Australian off-spinner was initially contracted to play for Lancashire for the whole season, before Cricket Australia decided to shorten it to seven games to manage his workload, cancelling his white-ball commitment with them.

Watch Lyon do the bail switch

Switching the bails around?

We see you, Nathan Lyon pic.twitter.com/sN1UWF13OB

— Vitality County Championship (@CountyChamp) April 15, 2024