IND vs AUS: Nathan Lyon Cautious of India’s ‘Big 3’ as Border Gavaskar Trophy Looms, Expresses Uncertainty

New Delhi: Australian spinner Nathan Lyon has expressed caution towards the formidable Indian team ahead of the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Lyon has identified Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Rishabh Pant as the key batters, dubbing them the real ‘Big 3’ in the Indian line-up. India, who have remained unbeaten in the last four Border-Gavaskar Trophies, will look to continue their dominance in the upcoming series. The highly anticipated BGT is set to commence in November and will feature a rare five-Test series between the two cricketing powerhouses. Lyon's acknowledgment of the Indian trio's prowess only adds to the excitement surrounding the much-awaited contest.

The Rohit Sharma-led side will start as favourites considering their record over the Australians in the last few years. Having said that, the hosts are no pushovers with the likes of Pat Cummins, Marnus Labuschange and Steve Smith to name a few in their ranks.

Lyon stated the Indians are going to be a massive challenge for Australia. “Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Rishabh Pant are probably going to be the three really big ones. But then you’ve still got Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Jadeja, and who else will come out—another five, I’m not sure,” Lyon said.

“But it’s a pretty amazing line-up they’ve got, so it’s going to be a massive challenge. As I said, if we, as a bowling group, are good enough for long periods, hopefully, we can challenge their defence,” he added.

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For India, they will be returning to longest cricket after six months since hammering England at home.
While Rohit had a decent series with two hundreds to his credit, both Kohli and Pant were absent from the series. The former India captain gave the four-match series a miss for birth of his son. Pant was still recovering from injuries sustained during a 2022 car accident at that time.

It was Jaiswal who impressed the most against England with two successive double hundreds against England and finished as the top run-getter with 700-plus runs. Gill was second behind Jaiswal with 452 runs. Earlier, Lyon described Ravichandran Ashwin as master in craft of off-spin.

“I’ve always said throughout my whole career I want to compete against the best and you look through the whole Indian line-up, the whole squad, there’s absolute superstars everywhere you look and you want to compete and challenge yourself against them and I know Ashwin and we debuted around similar times and we’ve competed against each other in a number of series now and between me and Ashwin I have got nothing but respect for him,” he said.

“I feel like I love watching him bowl, he’s an absolute master in the craft of off-spin bowling and it’s been an absolute privilege to play against him and learn off him. Pretty exciting, it’s obviously a massive summer for us out here so can’t wait to have the Indian guys out here,” he added.