Veteran Australian spinner Nathan Lyon will once again lock horns with Rishabh Pant in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Lyon and Pant have had a fierce rivalry over the years in Test cricket.
While the bowler has dismissed Pant five times in Test cricket so far, the wicketkeeper-batsman has not been shy about attacking him. Pant has faced 347 balls in total in Test cricket, where he has scored 229 runs.
He has scored these runs at an impressive strike rate of 66 and an excellent average of 45.8. Pant’s aggressive approach against Lyon’s experience gives every reason for an exciting battle between these two highly-rated players.
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Nathan Lyon opens up on battle with Rishabh Pant ahead of BGT 2024-25
In an interview with Star Sports ahead of the series, Nathan Lyon spoke about the challenge of bowling against someone like Rishabh Pant. Lyon believes Pant has all the skills and bowlers cannot afford to make mistakes.
“You’re playing against someone like Rishabh Pant, who is electrifying, isn’t he? He has all the skill in the world. As bowlers, the margin for error is very small. You have to be good and that’s the challenge,” Lyon said.
Lyon vs Pant 2.0! 🔥
Willpower #NathanLyon Will things change this time, or not? #RishabhPants Win again? 🇮🇳 vs 🇦🇺
He #TheToughestRivalry It takes place in #AUSvINDOnStarFRIDAY 22 NOV onwards 💙 photo.twitter.com/7eT6mwX8UM
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) September 24, 2024
Lyon further revealed his plans to bowl to an ultra-aggressive batsman like Pant. The off-spinner spoke about throwing defensive lines at the Indian wicketkeeper and trying to create opportunities.
“As a bowler, I know I’m going to get hit for a six, but I’m not afraid of getting hit for a six. The challenge is to try to keep someone like Rishabh in his crease and potentially try to get him to defend more and hopefully create a couple of chances along the way. But it’s quite fun,” he added.
Rishabh Pant shines on his return to Tests
Rishabh Pant has just played his first Test since returning to professional cricket following a life-threatening accident in December 2022. The Test match was against Bangladesh in Chennai, where Pant posted scores of 39 and 109 in both innings.
In both innings, Rishabh Pant was at his aggressive best and didn’t look like he was playing his first Test match in a long time. He played the fast bowlers and spinners with utmost ease and smashed runs all over the park in his trademark style.
India won the Test series in their last two tours of Australia and Rishabh Pant is one of the main reasons for those victories. In the 2018-19 series, he emerged as the second-highest run-scorer in the series with 350 runs in 4 Tests at an average of 58.33.
In the 2020-21 series, the wicket-keeper batsman scored 274 runs in 3 Tests at an average of 68.50 and finished as the third-highest run-scorer in the series. The series also included the famous 89* at the Gabba that helped India win the historic series 2-1.