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By the numbers: Lyon’s 99 Tests of brilliance

A look at some of the interesting, impressive and quirky statistics from Nathan Lyon's Test career for Australia as he prepares for his milestone match at the Gabba

1 | On only one occasion has Lyon bowled the first over of an innings. Way back in Delhi 2013, Lyon took the ball for the first over of the fourth innings and finished with 2-71, including the wickets of Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. 

5 | A memorable five wickets for just 32 runs on Test debut against Sri Lanka in Galle 2011. Lyon became just the 17th man in Test history to take a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket when he had Kumar Sangakkara caught at first slip by Michael Clarke. 

10 | The number of times Lyon has dismissed Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara in Test matches, which is Lyon's best haul against a single batter. Not far behind are England's Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad (nine times), followed by Alastair Cook and New Zealand's Tim Southee (eight).

Lyon roars to remove Rahane early on day five

15 | Number of bowlers in Test history have taken 400-plus wickets, with Lyon poised to become the 16th. Of the 15, only five are spinners; Muttiah Muralitharan (800 wickets), Shane Warne (708), Anil Kumble (619), Rangana Herath (433) and Harbhajan Singh (417).   

15.09 | Nathan Lyon's batting average at No.11. Only one player in the history of Tests has a higher batting average when walking out as the team's final batter, New Zealand's Trent Boult with an average of 15.36 in the position (minimum 30 innings).

20.52 | Lyon's bowling average against New Zealand, his lowest against any country except Bangladesh. Lyon has shone in the Trans-Tasman Trophy, taking 50 wickets in only 10 Tests against the Kiwis. 

29 | The number of wickets Lyon has taken in day-night Tests. Who says the pink ball is just for the quicks? Lyon has easily the most wickets of any spinner in day-night Tests and averages 27.41 with the ball in those fixtures, compared to 32.34 in regular day Test cricket. 

In case you don't know me: Nathan Lyon

45 | The amount of times he has dismissed a batsman for a duck in Tests. Lyon has had an especially good time against India's Ishant Sharma in this regard, dismissing him for zero on five different occasions. 

47 | Lyon’s highest Test score. Unfortunately he has never been able to reach the half-century milestone, falling three runs short in the first innings of the infamous 2018 Cape Town Test, which coincidently was also the match he claimed his 300th Test wicket.

52.53 | Lyon's win rate in Tests. From his 99 matches, he's come out as the victor 52 times, to go with 30 losses and 17 draws. Lyon's Test bowling average is 26.59 in wins, 34.37 in losses and 51.29 in draws. 

77 | Theconsecutive Tests played by the star off-spinner. Lyon lost his spot to Ashton Agar at the beginning of the 2013 Ashes series in England, but returned to the XI for the third Test and has been embedded in the line-up ever since.   

2017 | Statistically Lyon's best calendar year as a Test cricketer. He took 63 wickets at an average of 23.55 from 11 matches against Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and England. 

Lyon's milestones

First wicket: Kumar Sangakkara, caught Michael Clarke (Galle, 2011)

50th wicket: Jacques Rudolph, caught Ed Cowan (Adelaide, 2012)

100th wicket: Stuart Broad, caught Michael Clarke (Melbourne, 2013)

150th wicket: Jos Buttler, caught Brad Haddin (Cardiff, 2015)

200th wicket: Dhananjaya de Silva, caught Usman Khawaja (Pallekele, 2016)

250th wicket: Taijul Islam, lbw (Dhaka, 2017)

300th wicket: Kagiso Rabada, stumped Tim Paine (Cape Town, 2018)

350th wicket: Ben Stokes, caught Tim Paine (Edgbaston, 2019) 

Lyon on his biggest influence as he eyes magic milestone

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner

India Test squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: India won by eight wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: January 15-19, Gabba, 11am AEDT