Australian legend Adam Gilchrist has described Harbhajan Singh as his “nemesis”, saying the Indian off-spinner and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan were the two hardest bowlers that he faced during his international career.

Talking about his illustrious career’s milestones and memorable moments, the wicketkeeper recalled the 2001 away Test series against India where Harbhajan starred with the ball.

“(We were) five for 99, I went in there, got a hundred off 80 balls, we won in three days and I just thought, ‘What have these blokes been doing for 30 years. How easy’s this?’” Gilchrist said.

Harbhajan, who was adjudged Man of the Series, picked 32 wickets in three matches, including India’s first Test hat-trick at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata during the second Test.

“He was a bit of a nemesis for me right throughout my career. I found him and Murali probably the two hardest bowlers to face,” Gilchrist told cricket.com.au in their ‘The Unplayable Podcast’.

“As it would turn out, by the end of that series we probably needed to learn how to put a handbrake on just to get a holding pattern, rather than ‘attack, attack, attack’ because it doesn’t always work Harbhajan bamboozled us,” he added.

“I think that was probably one of my most important innings but there’s nothing too sexy about it. I promoted myself again, sounding like a big head but went up to try and be positive and just to erase the (first-innings) deficit,” the 47-year-old said.