Nathan Lyon and Virat Kohli have had many memorable battles on the cricket field, and the duo will once again have a go at each other in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy, beginning November 22 in Perth. Kohli has lately struggled against spin, and the Australia off-spinner would be eagerly waiting to have a crack at the maverick India batter.
When you think about Nathan Lyon vs Virat Kohli, the battle that straight away pops into your mind is the one during 2014 Adelaide Test, where Virat Kohli scored centuries in both the innings.
Now, the Australian spinner has talked about how Virat kept pumping himself during the marathon innings in Adelaide.
It was probably the first time that Virat Kohli brought out the sweep shot in his armoury, as he kept hitting Nathan Lyon to the leg-side boundary.
Lyon talked about how Kohli kept referring to Swiss tennis maestro Roger Federer in order to get under the skin of the Australian spinner.
“The battle that comes to me is the 2014 test at Adelaide Oval where he got the 100’s in both innings. I was bowling to him and he was batting that easily. He would come down to non-striker and just say Federer. And I was like, OK, what is this and he kept doing it, kept doing it. Every time. Every time he would come down and he was like, Federer, Federer,” said Lyon in a video posted by cricket.com.au’s official X (formerly Twitter) handle.
“And I said, mate, I do not know if I am wrong, but we are playing the wrong sport If you think you are Federer. And he goes ‘Nah, nah I got a beautiful forehand’. I was just like, OK, you are a decent player, if you can just sit there and do that mid-innings,” he added.
Virat Kohli’s record against Nathan Lyon
Virat Kohli has a mixed match-up against Nathan Lyon, as he has scored 529 runs against the off-spinner, who has 536 Test scalps to his name. However, he has also been dismissed seven times by the experienced Australian.
Kohli now enters the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy amid constant scrutiny around his form as he has scored just wo centuries and 11 half-centuries in his last 60 Test innings.
The image gets all the more grim when you consider the last six Tests of the 36-year-old. He is just averaging just 22.72 in his last 12 innings.
In the three-match series against New Zealand, Kohli was able to come up with just 93 runs, out of which 70 runs came in the second innings of the first Test in Bengaluru.
However, Lyon is refusing to write off Virat Kohli. “Overall, look at his record. You don’t write off champions. I’ve got nothing but respect for Virat. I want to get him out, there’s no point in hiding behind that, but it’s challenging. It’s been pretty amazing competing against him for so many times,” Lyon said.
It is important to state that Lyon is one of the four members of the current squad who were a part of Australia’s last Test series win against India. It came way back in 2014/15.
India have won the last two series Down Under, and the visitors are looking to make it a hat-trick.
