Australia v India second Test: Nathan Lyon roars again and the tourists are back in the game

Meanwhile Travis Head has mounted a strong argument that he remain at the top of the Australian batting order even if David Warner recovers from injury.

Travis Head bats during day two of the Second Test between Australia and India at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Saturday. Picture: Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images

Travis Head took the game on to give Australia a 62-run lead and a strong chance of winning the second cricket Test in Delhi — the recalled batsman making the most of David Warner’s absence at the top of the order.

The South Australian used the short time available after Australia bowled India out for 262 late on the second day on Saturday, to mount a strong argument that he remain at the top of the order even if Warner, who has concussion and a hairline fracture of the elbow, proves fit for the remaining two Tests.

Head belted his way to 39no from 40 deliveries and will resume on the third day with Marnus Labuschagne (16no) and his side 1-61.

Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne on day two. Picture: Getty Images

Australia’s first-innings lead should have been far greater and its position in the second even stronger but Axar Patel and Ravi Ashwin combined for a frustrating 114-run stand.

The eight-wicket partnership dragged a game that could have been in the bag back into the balance.

Warner joined Cameron Green, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the Australian sick bay and will be in doubt for the rest of the series.

Nathan Lyon’s 22nd five-wicket haul in Test cricket had helped reduce India to 7-139 and put his side in position to take an unbeatable lead in the game before it got away from them again.

Nathan Lyon bowls during the second day. Picture: Money Sharma / AFP

Lyon should have had more wickets but the Steve Smith and Matthew Renshaw failed to grasp opportunities at slip and leg slip when both batters were in their 20s.

India’s Shreyas Iyer showed how it was done when the Australian’s resumed by pulling off a stunning catch in the leg trap to remove Usman Khawaja for six off the bowling of Ravi Jadeja.

Were it not for fine outfield catches from Renshaw and Cummins when the new ball was taken, more damage may have been done by the Indian tail.

Axar, who scored 84 in the first Test, finished on 74 and Ashwin 37.

Cummins and senior members of the side were in regular, time wasting huddles before almost every over in the final session as they workshopped ways to stem the bleeding.

Former Test player turned coach Tom Moody was critical of Cummins on social media.

“After holding the upper hand, Australia have let it slide due to a lack of creativity with fields and bowling changes,” Moody tweeted. “The game is back in the balance.”

Earlier Lyon, the doyen of Delhi, bowled Australia back into the Border Gavaskar Trophy with a brilliant performance.

The veteran slow bowler Lyon took his 700th first class wicket and spun a web around India’s top order as news filtered through that Warner was not only out of the game with concussion, but had also suffered a hairline fracture to the elbow.

Matthew Kuhnemann celebrated his debut with the wicket of Virat Kohli, who’d reached 44 in the second session and had threatened to mount a fight back.

The left-arm spinner finished with 2-72 and Todd Murphy 2-53.

In the first session Lyon took 4-12 from 44 fabulous deliveries that turned the tables on the Indian batsman in their own backyard.

The performance reprised his seven-wicket haul in the second innings of the Test at the same ground nine years before.

He was aided by a pitch that turned and kept low, but his fourth victim Shreyas Iyer (4) fell to brilliant piece of close fielding by Peter Handscomb. The ball hit the Victorian, who was at short leg, in the midriff, spilled out and was fumbled before being grasped at the last moment.

Lyon had bowled without luck in Nagpur and watched on as Todd Murphy took seven wickets on debut in the match Australia lost by an innings.

The 35-year-old was then left standing by in Delhi as left-arm orthodox spinner, Kuhnemann, was chosen to take the new ball with captain Pat Cummins.

While that choice was driven by the fact the Queenslander spins the ball away from India’s right-handers, it did mean Lyon had to wait until the 16th over and the second morning to get the ball in his hand.

Where Kuhnemann and Cummins had been relatively innocuous, he was almost instantly dangerous.

Lyon’s seventh ball trapped KL Rahul in front for 17, the Indian opener reviewed after being given out but DRS backed the umpire.

It was a critical moment as India’s batsmen had advanced to 0-46 and looked set to haul in Australia’s 263 first innings with ease.

A wicket that had spat and snarled the day before looked positively snoozy until Lyon came on.

He got the ball to float, dip and grip in the soft-topped wicket, which was keeping low. The Australian made batting look as hard for India on day two as it had for Australia on day one when Ravi Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja were working their magic.

Australia's wicketkeeper Alex Carey, centre, appeals for the wicket of India's Cheteshwar Pujara, right, during the second day. Picture: AFP

Two balls after getting the first wicket, Lyon had Cheteshwar Pujara trapped in front, but the visitors had worked themselves into a corner by wasting two reviews in the previous half-hour and did not have the nerve to go upstairs with this one when the appeal was turned down.

The batsman was, admittedly, down the pitch, but replays showed the ball was cannoning into the stumps halfway up.

It was a sobering moment, reminiscent of the disaster at Headingley, but Lyon was not to be deterred.

Two wickets in three balls erased all concerns over the error.

Lyon struck again in his next over, trapping Rohit Sharma in front with one that straightened and skidded back into the tentative batsman’s stumps. The Indian captain and hero of Nagpur was out for 32 and Australia was back in the hunt.

Pujara, who had been given a reprieve before was dismissed two balls later, again trapped in front to become Lyon’s fourth victim.

Pat Cummins, right, speaks with Nathan Lyon during the second day. Picture: AFP

Cummins and his advisers had their nerve tested when the umpire turned down the appeal, but they risked their last review and all three lights came up red.

Pujara was out for a duck in his 100th Test. Indeed, he’d essentially been dismissed twice without scoring in a game that began with a ceremony to mark the occasion. Scores of friends and families were in the stands wearing specially made CP shirts, but they had little to cheer about.

The Australians, however, were ecstatic.

Lyon had roared and they were back in the game, but he was not done yet.

The veteran took his 464th Test wicket before the break, dismissing Shreyas Iyer for 4 and had the remarkable figures of 4-12.

David Warner, right, speaks with India's Virat Kohli during the first day on Friday. Picture: AFP

Warner spent a few hours in the dressing room early in the day before returning to the team hotel.

He was glimpsed briefly talking to the coaches during his stay.

Lyon said the veteran opener could be back before the end of the series.

“He’s going ok. Obviously he’s injured, concussed or a fracture in the arm and your spirits dare say go down a little bit, but Davey is Davey, we love having him around the team,” he said.

“To be honest with you it talking to the medical staff it’s one of those ones where you could potentially play if you rest it over the next few days and we’ve got a decent break after this Test match.

“If he’s recovered well, I wouldn’t be surprised if you see him out there again.

“We’ll see how we go.”