I understand that, but he's doing it while the other bloke is taking poles at test level while bowling to better batsmen. SOK is a good bowler, but he shouldn't be picked ahead of Lyon here, or indeed after the India tour, anywhere. They went head-to-head across these past four tests, and they both bowled well, but Lyon was more consistently threatening across the whole series, even though they each had patches where they were played well. I thought going into the series that O'Keefe would have a much much better economy rate than Lyon and that the latter might take poles but would go for plenty at a fast rate. The fact he didn't was probably the thing which tipped it in his favour. Now the next tests are to be at home where the bounce helps Lyon makes me think he should get first crack at it. If they went the other way though, SOK wouldn't let anyone down.
Both good bowlers, but let's be honest, they're finger spinners so really they're just there to pass the time until the real bowlers get another crack. The fact that India's two best bowlers are finger spinners basically encapsulates why they are a blight on the game and why they have never been taken seriously when they've toured around the world at any time since the 1940s.