Warne pleased to see Lyon switch back

Nathan Lyon got his bounce back in more ways than one on Thursday, testing out India's batsmen on an Adelaide Oval surface that is playing enough tricks to suggest a draw may not be the only possible result in this first Commonwealth Bank Test, despite just 12 wickets falling in the opening three days.

Lyon picked up two of the five wickets to fall today, finishing with 2-103 as India closed on 5-369 in reply to Australia's 7-517 declared.

Just as importantly as the wickets Lyon took on a day when four Indian batsmen passed 50, the offspinner bowled with greater purpose and intent than he did on the recent tour of the UAE, where he took just three wickets in two Tests against Pakistan.

Lyon was on the receiving end of what seemed to be a premeditated assault from Murali Vijay in the first session this morning - he conceded 34 runs from his first five overs - but returned after lunch and bowled with the flight and bounce that has guided him to 117 wickets in 36 Tests.

It was a method that the 27-year-old seemed to stray from in the UAE, much to the disappointment of spin legend Shane Warne, who said today's performance was vindication of the work Lyon has done with Cricket Australia's spin consultant John Davison.

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"When Nathan Lyon bowls his best, he flights the ball, he's got shape, he gets the ball to dip and spin," Warne told cricket.com.au.

"In the UAE, he was bowling fast and into the pitch.

"I don't know why he was doing that and I don't know who told him to do that, but it didn't work and it didn't look good and the results were there too.

"I think the way Davo and Nathan Lyon have worked together, what I'm seeing here in Adelaide, and what I saw when I worked with Nathan Lyon as well, I think he is going to be very, very successful when he bowls like that."

Having declared on Australia's overnight total, captain Michael Clarke surprisingly handed Lyon the ball in just the seventh over of the morning, much to the delight of Vijay.

The right-hander made no secret of his desire to unsettle the off-spinner, charging down the pitch and playing an ugly swipe to the on side for a single from the first ball he faced.

A change of ends brought no relief as Vijay twice lofted Lyon over the rope at long-on and once for four over mid-wicket.

But the opener was the only Indian batsman who was able to truly get on top of Lyon, who took 2-69 from 25 overs after the initial onslaught.

"As soon as I saw him bowl those first few overs today ... I said on commentary that I thought he was bowling beautifully and had some great shape," Warne said.

"The good thing for me is he stuck to his guns and he didn't change the way he was bowling.

"And he got some rewards, caused some havoc for the batsmen and is looking really threatening.

"I think he could end up with a big bag here (and) if he doesn't, a big bag is just around the corner.

"A lot of teams try (to attack Lyon) because if you can hit the spinner out of the attack, the quicks have to obviously bowl more overs.

"England tried to get after Nathan Lyon too and that didn't work. He's a very, very good bowler.

"And he's lucky he's got a good captain who sets good fields and understands spin bowling."

Warne worked closely with Lyon earlier this year when Cricket Australia hired the 45-year-old as a spin-bowling consultant for the tour of South Africa and their World T20 campaign in Bangladesh.

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CA then turned to Test cricket's leading wicket-taker, Sri Lanka legend Muthiah Muralidaran, for the October tour of the UAE where the team played two spinners - Lyon and debutant left-armer Stephen O'Keefe - for the first Test in Dubai.

With Davison watching on from the viewing area in the Sir Donald Bradman Stand today, Lyon's first wicket came thanks a stroke of good fortune that was well deserved after he had created several nervous moments on a pitch that is still heavily in favour of the batsmen.

Lyon lured Cheteshwar Pujara into a tentative defensive shot when on 73, the ball dribbling back off the batsman's pads and into the stumps with enough force to remove both bails and end an 81-run partnership between Pujara and his skipper Virat Kohli.

The delivery that preceded the wicket may have played a factor in the No.3's uncertain stroke; he'd come down the track at Lyon but, not to the pitch of the ball and could only inside edge it back to the bowler.

Lyon's second wicket came via a ball that landed in the rough outside the right-hander's off-stump at the northern end, which became more and more treacherous as the day progressed, and which no doubt had been helped along by India's tactic of bowling around the wicket to Australia's openers on the first day.

Ajinkya Rahane, on 62, went back to a well-flighted delivery that turned and bounced enough to take the glove and float into the hands of Shane Watson, who only had to move a few paces to his right from first slip to take a simple catch.