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Was India’s ‘classy’ 100th Test gift to Nathan Lyon actually a piece of ‘brutal champing’?

by Wisden Staff 2 minute read

A “classy touch” by Ajinkya Rahane in the post-match presentation after the Gabba Test might actually have been a way to inflict more pain on Nathan Lyon, according to a certain section of Twitter users.

Moments after India retained the Border-Gavaskar trophy with another series win in Australia, the team won large swathes the internet over with their seemingly giant-hearted gesture towards Nathan Lyon, the Australian spinner who was playing his 100th Test match.

In the post-match presentation ceremony, Ajinkya Rahane, the stand-in skipper, presented Lyon with a signed shirt. “From the Indian team, we’d like to give Nathan Lyon a signed jersey for playing 100 Tests,” Rahane announced at the ceremony, calling for Lyon to come and collect the memento.

While the gesture earned appreciation in the main, Cricket 365 editor Dave Tickner had his suspicions about the event and shared it on a Twitter thread.

Tickner wondered why Lyon was given the signed shirt in front of everyone rather than inside the dressing room, especially after India had won the Test and series with Lyon underperforming. The Australian off-spinner finished with nine wickets in the series while averaging 55.11 with the ball and never got to 400 Test wickets, a landmark he was expected to breeze past.

The tweets spread like wildfire as a large number of users shared that similar thoughts had crossed their mind.

 

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