Nathan Lyon’s heroism has exposed the issues in cricket’s substitution rules – it’s time to allow injury replacements

Nathan Lyon, one of the heroes of Australia’s Edgbaston triumph, took their first wicket at Lord’s as well. A calf injury on the second day then prevented him from bowling – his primary skill – for the rest of the Test match.

He did return to the ground to bat at No.11. His footwork would not be the best, and sprinting was ruled out, but as long as he did not get out, Mitchell Starc could have a go at the other end.

Lyon received a generous, deserving applause from the Lord’s crowd for risking aggravation of his injury for the sake of his team. When he hobbled across for a single, it would be some time before he recovered from the pain: they cheered for him again.

Lyon was neither the first nor the last Test cricketer to have risked physical injuries to benefit his team. Lionel Tennyson made two fifties with one arm in the 1921 Ashes, and the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Paul Terry, and Saleem Malik joined the list over time. Ramakant Desai and Rick McCosker batted, and Anil Kumble bowled, with broken jaws. The injured trio of Rishabh Pant, Hanuma Vihari, and R Ashwin saved the Sydney Test match for India as Ravindra Jadeja, with a dislocated thumb, had assured he would bat.

The list is long, and not the point of this piece. However, it does throw up a pertinent question: were any of these needed, or could they have been avoided with a simple change of the Laws?

“Imagine if he had been hit on the head”

“Imagine if he [Lyon] had been hit on the head and got concussion, he’d have got a like-for-like replacement and a world-class spinner [hinting at Todd Murphy],” said Kevin Pietersen on Sky Sports when Lyon batted.

Whether Pietersen had been criticising the Laws or hinting at Lyon deliberately trying to get hit is unclear. Lyon, however, was not amused: “I have heard comments that people thought I went out there to get hit in the head and I’m really against that because I’ve lost one of my mates [Phil Hughes] due to being hit in the head. I think that’s a really poor excuse or conversation being had, if I’m being honest with you.”

Had the accusations been true, they would undoubtedly have been in poor taste. At the same time, one can build on Pietersen’s lines to ask a question: if concussion or COVID-19 is reason enough for full substitution, why not other serious injuries?

Contrary to popular belief, cricket always had substitutes, the most ridiculous of which came in Southampton in 1843. When Thomas Barker broke his leg while getting out of a taxi, Francis Noyes of Nottinghamshire was allowed to bat twice in each innings against Hampshire. The match had first-class status.

Several countries allow substitutions in first-class matches when cricketers get called up by the national side, but not for injuries. When Gareth Batty of Surrey fell ill during their 2019 match against Kent, both sides agreed on Amar Virdi as a full substitute. But as Virdi was waiting to bat, padded up, with his name on the Kia Oval scorecard, the ECB announced that the match would be stripped of first-class status if Virdi played – because Batty had been ill, not concussed or called up to play Test cricket. Surrey got the news at the last moment, played with ten men, and lost.

Curiously, the ICC had introduced the SuperSub in the 2000s, albeit in ODIs, an idea based on which the BCCI introduced the Impact Player, first in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, then at the IPL. While teams have used these as strategic substitutions, they have been – in emergency – forced to use them to replace injured cricketers, but there have been no injury-only substitution clause.

Despite allowing substitutions in first-class or limited-overs internationals, the authorities have seldom been flexible in making changes to Test cricket. When it comes to substitutions, it has assumed ridiculous proportions.

In 2019, Marnus Labuschagne walking out as Test cricket’s first concussion substitute for Steve Smith was the first instance of a team having a playing XII.

Later that year, Shannon Gabriel became Test cricket’s first No.12. By 2023, five others have joined the list – and that is merely the instances where a batter had to be replaced mid-innings. Had teams been allowed to replace seriously injured cricketers, the list would have started in the 19th century.

Lyon’s former coach Justin Langer would have been among them. In his 100th Test match – not consecutive, unlike Lyon’s – Langer was hit on the helmet off the first ball he faced in the Test match. Chasing 292, Australia became 275-8 as Langer awaited his turn. When Ponting threatened to declare if Langer stepped out of the dressing room, the response was on expected lines: “If you declare, we are not friends any more.”

Admirable courage. A line worth quoting. But also a situation easily avoidable with a change of Laws.

There is no reason for non-concussion injuries not being relevant enough to merit a full substitute. If the medical team can be trusted with concussions, surely they can be trusted with other ailments as well. It need not be a compulsory substitution either.

Of course, despite there being precedents of COVID-19 and concussion substitutes, there will always be resistance, for it will be a departure from tradition. Yet, clinging on to this particular tradition has seldom done cricket any good.

At Headingley in 1921, Jack Hobbs went down with appendicitis after fielding for a few hours. At Bombay in 1964/65, a stomach bug ruled Norman O’Neill out for almost the entire Test match. Neither batted in either innings.

India lost MAK Pataudi and Farokh Engineer to injuries during the Bangalore Test match of 1974/75 against the West Indies and batted with nine men. Australia lost Steve Waugh and Jason Gillespie during the Kandy Test match of 1999/00 and faced the same fate for a longer span. There were five “absent hurt”s in India’s second innings in the Kingston Test match of 1974/75.

At the Kingston Test match of 1957/58, Pakistan lost Mahmood Hussain and Nasim-ul-Ghani early into the West Indies innings. Fazal Mahmood bowled 85.2 overs, and Khan Mohammad 54, of fast medium pace as Garry Sobers made a world record 365 not out and Conrad Hunte 260 and the West Indies amassed 790-3.

Yet again, the list is long. And in each of these cases, as with many others, the rigidity of the authorities ensured that the cricket would not remain eleven-on-eleven contests, as it did for Australia in this Test match.

Whether the authorities want to avoid similar subsequent mismatches is up to them.