Australia vs India, First Test: 5 Talking Points

4. Batting lessons from Nathan Lyon

The off-spinner almost got his side over the line

Nathan Lyon could arguably be called as the world's best tailender right now and is growing into the position of Test all-rounder, as witnessed from his recent exploits with the bat. The offie not only picked nine wickets across India's two innings but also became the fourth-best runscorer in the game behind Pujara, Travis Head and Ajinkya Rahane, with 62 runs in two innings.

His display in the second innings was especially spectacular, staying on the crease despite running out of partners at the other end, at regular intervals. He came in to bat at 187/7, and remained unbeaten at 38, as Australia concluded their stint 104 runs later.

Lyon added 41 runs with Starc, 31 with Cummins and 32 with Hazlewood in the 8th, 9th and 10th wicket partnerships. He was instrumental in spreading caution among Kohli and co., before Hazlewood's departure cleared their nerves.

This is not Lyon's first good time with the bat. In fact, he was not dismissed even once, throughout the 2013-14 Ashes series, when he scored 60 valuable runs across 6 innings. It was a rare case of a batsman never being dismissed across an entire series.