Australian opener David Warner has practically missed the entire tour after injuring himself in the second ODI at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He is still nursing the groin injury and is highly doubtful of being 100% fit for the New Year's Test by Thursday, January 7.

However, Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon believes that Warner should play in Sydney even with not his full fitness to provide the X-factor to the hosts. The spinner is of the opinion that including the opener into the XI without him 100% fit is worth the risk.

Lyon said, "One hundred percent (Warner should play in Sydney). I think David is an X-factor. He is a world-class batter, we all know that, so I am 100 percent expecting David to go out there in the next couple of Test matches and do well.”

“Obviously, he's got all of the support of the Australian changing room and everyone else around the world to come in here and do well. So I'm looking forward to getting Davey back up to the top order for Australia,” he added.

AUS v IND 2020-21: "He's very cagey and talented; can't compare myself to Ashwin", says Nathan Lyon

Nathan Lyon currently his 6 wickets shy of becoming the second Australian spinner to get to 400 Test wickets milestone after the legendary Shane Warne.

He believes that these sorts of milestones would be good to look at when he finishes playing but the more important milestone will be to beat India in both the remaining Tests.

The 33-year-old said, “If I can play my role and make sure we can win this series against a pretty amazing Indian cricket side, those milestones will be nice to look at come the end of my career. It's pretty amazing that I've got a couple of them just around the corner.”

“But for me it's more about coming out and playing my role, and hopefully we can sing the (team victory) song twice and that will top off my milestones,” he added.

(With inputs from AFP)