India batter Cheteshwar Pujara rated the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home against Australia in 2016-17 as the toughest series he was involved in his career.
Pujara was speaking at the launch of his wife Puja's book The Diary of a Cricketer's Wife.
“I can mention one incident, in 2017, when India was bowled out for 200 odd runs against Australia, that was one of the toughest Test series I've been part of,” Pujara said in Mumbai on Friday.
“This was the second Test match at Bangalore, and the team didn't do well in the first innings, and we were again in a spot of bother in the second innings, but I spoke to Anil (Kumble) bhai about how to tackle Nathan Lyon, and he came up with a technical suggestion.”
On his part, the former India coach Kumble said he was only trying to second-guess the bowler.
“Because I was second guessing the bowler, and I got it right after the 115 (read 132) Test matches, so it was all about guess work,” Kumble said.
“I would tell Puji (Pujara) that, look, I can only tell you about how a bowler is thinking and what would put pressure on a bowler when you as a batter would be reacting and that was the only thing,” he added.
Pujara recalled the struggles made by his parents to support his career.
Pujara said, “I lost my mom and I was 17. But the kind of support my parents gave me when I was young and to relive those moments, because she (Puja) has described this thing really, really well."
“I still remember from my mother's advice that what you do in your life, and she was very confident that I'll end up playing for the country, she told me that you have to be a good human being first.”
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