IPL 2017: Nathan Lyon to replace Ravichandran Ashwin at Rising Pune Supergiants?

Pune: Rising Pune Supergiants may replace injured Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin with ace Australian tweaker Nathan Lyon, ahead of the start of the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League, this month.

After a long an arduous season, the Chennai-born lad has been ruled out of the 2017 IPL due to a sports hernia, an injury that takes around six to eight weeks to recover from.

With Ashwin ruled out, RPSG are reportedly set to bring in ace Australia spinner Nathan Lyon.

According to a report in Sportskeeda, those in the club, close to newly-appointed captain Steve Smith believe that the Aussie skipper may bring his Test teammate on board, to replace the Indian spinner.

Although Ashwin had been in sublime form this season, taking 82 wickets in 13 matches, the 30-year-old was recently pipped by his compatriot Ravindra Jadeja as the numero uno bowler in the ICC Test rankings.

Lyon has had a successful outing in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy, picking up 19 wickets (just two less than Ashwin), which India won 2-1.

However, bringing Lyon in could make picking the starting XI more of a headache for Steve Smith, as RPSG already have a talented foreign spinner, in the form of Adam Zampa. To add to that, the Pune-based franchise have also brought in ace South African spinner Imran Tahir, as a replacement for injured Australian paceman Mitchell Marsh.

Tahir, who has not been able to seal his spot in the South African Test side, is a regular in their ODI team, and has even climbed to the top of the ICC ODI bowler’s rankings. He has built his reputation as a limited overs specialist, taking 54 wickets from 31 T20 Internationals. On the other hand, Lyon has appeared in only one T20 International for Australia.