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The first time Australia missed Nathan Lyon was the time he usually comes on, shortly before the long break.

Instead, Joe Root and Zak Crawley had the relative comfort of facing some steady right-arm trundling all the way to their dinner. Root, a good player of spin, is even better against medium-paced bowling that is drifting onto his pads.

The next time Australia missed Lyon was after the break, when their idea of variety was to have Brendan Doggett and Michael Neser set about a tactical bouncer attack.

Crawley was out, but this was the period when Root consolidated his start into a proper innings, aiming at that long-awaited first Test century in Australia, without the challenge of Test cricket’s best off-spinner.

It looked like Australia were missing Lyon especially badly when Ben Stokes came in at 4-176.

Lyon has been more effective against Stokes than any other Australian bowler, and his omission asks the question of whether Australia aren’t taking Stokes........

© The Sydney Morning Herald