With his confident run at home in the 2016/17 season, Pujara was backed for the South Africa tour, but the batter failed to get big scores despite getting starts on trying wickets. He was dropped from the first Test of the subsequent England tour, but made it back into the XI for the remainder of the series, and responded with a confident 132* in Southampton.
This secured his place for the upcoming tour of Australia, and it was a series that Pujara was to make his own.
The batter set the tone with a stellar outing in Adelaide, yet again coming to India’s rescue after they were 41/4 and then 86/5, holding the innings together against Australia’s fearsome attack featuring Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, and Pat Cummins. His 123 helped India to a total of 250.