India’s Cheteshwar Pujara, who walked away with the man of the series award in the Border-Gavaskar series said the next step in his career would be to knock on the doors of the limited-overs side.

Pujara scored 521 runs in the series with three hundreds. It was the Saurashtra batsman’s century that set the tone for Virat Kohli’s men to clinch a historic first series win Down Under.

“I’ll be playing some first-class cricket back home,” Pujara said at the post match press conference. “During the IPL, I might be playing county cricket. The next Test series is 6-7 months away. I’ll work hard on my game to play white-ball cricket. But Test cricket is my priority, it’ll always remain my priority.”

Advertisement

After a modest outing in 2014-’15, Pujara was at the top of his game this time around, grinding the formidable Australian bowlers to the ground. “It’s a great feeling for all of us. We’ve been working really hard to win a series overseas. And especially doing it in this country, it’s never easy.”

The 30-year-old revealed that before coming into the series, he had his eyes set on a good start. Despite wickets falling cheaply in Adelaide on day one of the series, Pujara belted the Australians to get his first century Down Under. “First hundred was special... scoring it in Adelaide and going 1-0 up is something which we were all aiming for. When you do that, there’s a good chance of winning the series.”

Despite having a poor run in county cricket last summer, Pujara stated that playing in those conditions helped him grow as a batsman. “As a batsman, you just need to get used to pace and bounce. Playing in different conditions, in South Africa, in England county cricket helped me improve my technique. This is definitely the best squad I’ve been a part of. Congratulations to the bowlers, taking 20 wickets in never easy.”