HISTORY tells us Nathan Lyon is the best off-spinner Australia has had, yet selectors are still having trouble believing it.
A year on from his World Cup snubbing, Lyon will pull on a Sydney Sixers shirt on Thursday night, forced to once again fight to prove his white ball credentials. 
It defies belief Australia's No. 1 spinner and the custodian of the team's victory anthem still has to sing for his supper in the Big Bash when it comes to ODI and Twenty20 international selection.
Lyon's 50th Test match in Hobart was an inspirational triumph considering the trials he has had to overcome in his time in the baggy green. But at 28 and with a record 175 Test wickets to his name, the truth is the most decorated off-spinner the country has seen is still its most underrated.
Xavier Doherty gives up 40 runs for every wicket he takes in ODI cricket, yet he was preferred as Australia's World Cup spinner over Lyon, who possesses a far superior average of 30. Few know spin bowling better than Michael Clarke and the former Australian captain says: "I find it hard to believe (Lyon) hasn't played more one-day cricket." With Lyon trying to establish himself in the wake of Shane Warne, there was a period where selectors were perhaps entitled to try to protect him from the pressure of all three forms.
But, as recently as   August, national selector Rod Marsh tried to justify Ashton Agar's selection for the one-dayers in England by explaining Lyon was bowling "too well" in Tests to be risked.
Fifty matches later and surely the man team-mates call the GOAT (greatest of all time) no longer needs a Sherpa. Lyon was not amused by Marsh's explanation and why would he be, stuck on just eight ODI internationals and no T20s for Australia?
The one travesty of Australia's triumph at the MCG earlier this year was that a heart-and-soul figurehead of the dressing room like Lyon wasn't part of the celebrations.
Conditions dictated he may not have played the final anyway but Australia's greatest off-spinner at least deserved a place in the squad and a medal to recognise his rightful place among the top 15 cricketers in the country.If the Lyon king isn't finally handed the keys to the white ball empire this summer it would seem his dreams of playing the next World Cup in 2019 are also dead and buried.