Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Nathan Lyon ‘surprised’ at Indian celebrations after tourists avoided Gabba follow-on

Aussie veteran Nathan Lyon has revealed he was “surprised” at India’s jubilant change-room reaction to avoiding the follow-on, saying it didn’t look like their top order batters were keen to face the music at the Gabba.

Indian veteran Virat Kohli and coach Gautam Gambhir celebrated with a high-five in the rooms amid Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep’s late heroics to help the tourists dodge the prospect of a follow-on late on day four in Brisbane.

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was also boasting a big smile, while on the field, Akash thumped his fist against the India team badge on his chest.

The 47-run stand for the 10th wicket all but ended Australia’s hopes of eking out a victory in the rain-affected clash, meaning the series is set to remain knotted at 1-1 heading into the final two Tests.

Lyon said the Aussies had taken note of the joyous reactions, with the home side likely to use it as fuel for the fire as they look to snare the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“There were a few of us after play - we spoke about that (and being) surprised at some of their reactions,” Lyon said on Fox during Tuesday morning’s rain delay.

“Especially the way that we’ve gone about this game. I think we can be extremely proud about the way we’ve gone about it... we’ve really driven this game to get it into the position we find ourselves at the moment.”

Lyon said he was disappointed the Aussies didn’t get a chance to enforce the follow-on and make India’s batting line-up sweat.

“You see the reaction - it looked to me like their top order didn’t want to bat last night, if we (had been) able to get there and enforce the follow-on,” Lyon said.

“Our plan was to do that. But I was proud of the effort of the boys, especially when you lose Josh (Hazlewood) early in the day.”