Perth, Australia

Former Australia skipper Tim Paine has said it was Cheteshwar Pujara and not Rishabh Pant who won India the Test series last time in Australia. The comments come during the build up of the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Test series which starts November 22 in Perth, Australia. 

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"What I do remember, a lot of people talk about Rishabh Pant in the last series in Australia, but the guy who won them the series was Pujara. He wore us down, he wore our fast bowlers down. He kept getting hit on the body, but he kept getting up. There is still place for that in Test cricket," said Paine while talking on the Grade Cricketer's Podcast.

Also Read: 'Always expect us to do well,' says Aussie skipper Pat Cummins ahead of home BGT vs India

Pant was one of India's best performers on the series and had scored the series winning 89 not out in Gabba, Brisbane in addition to his match-saving 97 in Sydney.

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Pujara, on the other hand, played a lot of balls and took a lot of body blows to help a second-string India batting unit which had no Virat Kohli.

It is to be noted that Australia have lost the last four Test series against India, including two at home and two away. India last lost a Test series against Australia in 2014.

India's tour of Australia begins on November 22 in Perth before the day-night second Test in Adelaide from December 6-10. The third Test will be played at the Gabba in Brisbane from December 14-18  before the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) from December 26-30. The last and final Test will be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) from January 3-7. 

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India's squad for Australia tour: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar