In Bengaluru in 2017, Nathan Lyon took eight for 50; his best figures in a Test innings. He dismissed India’s key players at their peaks: Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane. He toiled for more than 22 overs, and later a further 33. He put his teammates into a dominant position with a modest target to chase. Then he watched them lose.
In Indore in 2023, Nathan Lyon took eight wickets for the second time. After a long day of off-spin bowling, the figures were a similar eight for 64. This time he took them in the third innings of the match, not the first. Even so, like a fold in the fabric of space-time, echoes of 2017 kept coming through.
