Australia legend Mark Waugh has no complaints against Nathan Lyon’s exclusion

Australia dropped the spinner with more than 550 Test wickets for the second time in less than a year.

For the second time in the last 12 months, Australia spinner Nathan Lyon was dropped from the Playing XI to accommodate a pacer. Lyon, who has taken more than 550 Test wickets, was dropped for the second South Africa-Australia Test at Gqeberha on Sunday. Scott Boland took his place and justified his inclusion with wickets off successful balls, leaving the Proteas reeling at 20/2 at stumps on a rain-hit opening day.

Mark Waugh is okay with the big Aussie call. (Getty Images)

Last year during the Ashes, Lyon was dropped from the pink-ball second Test, and Michael Neser was brought in. The medium pacer ended up taking a five-for in the big win for the hosts. The way Boland cleaned up the seasoned Aiden Markram with an inswinger and then followed it up with an outswinger to have David Bedingham caught behind was pretty special.

Former Australia batsman Mark Waugh has no reason to criticise Lyon’s exclusion as it was done taking into consideration the pitch’s nature, just like it was done last year during the Ashes and months before that in the West Indies for another pink-ball game. The pink-ball pitches are made a certain way to help maintain the lacquer which in turn invariably helps pacers.

“It’s tough on Lyon, but it’s a fair call,” Waugh said on Fox Cricket.

“Would South Africa rather face Nathan Lyon or Scott Boland? They’d say Lyon ... if the conditions suit, he (Boland) should be playing,” he added.

Former Aussie spinner Kerry O’Keefe is not happy with the decision, even though in his heart of hearts he knows it’s the right call despite it being a ‘dangerous prospect’.

“Boland takes his wickets at 12 in the final innings. It’ll hurt me. It’ll hurt Nathan Lyon, but that’s why,” he told Fox Cricket.

‘I hate it’

Another Aussie spinner Steve O’Keefe, who has played with Lyon in the past, has a totally different opinion. He is in fact furious. He thinks Lyon is being unfairly treated. Steve and Lyon shared 17 wickets between them to stun India in the Pune Test in 2017, with the former accounting for 12 of them.

“I hate it. I completely disagree with them not picking a spinner, let alone a spinner with 550 wickets,” O’Keefe said on the Chin Music podcast.

"If you're going innings by innings, OK, he didn't contribute (in the second innings in Durban after two wickets in the first), but they've won the Test.

“If I’m him (Lyon), I’m probably even more livid than I was when I was (left out) in Australia,” he added.