Steve Smith has opened up on the infamous DRS controversy that added spice to the four-match Test series, which India won at home against Australia 2-1 earlier this year.
In his book, "The Journey" that released on Wednesday, October 25, the Australian captain has refuted his India counterpart Virat Kohli's claims that the visitors were habitual offenders of DRS.
After dominating England and New Zealand in the 2016-17 home season, Kohli's men were handed a shock as Australia emerged victorious in the first of the four-match series in Pune.
Skipper Smith led from the front well in the second Test in Bengaluru as well as Australia bowled out India for 179 and took an 87-run first-innings lead. However, a gritty 92 from Cheteshwar Pujara meant the visitors needed to chase 188 on a deteriorating track.
Australia lost early wickets in chase of the tricky target and their woes compounded when Smith was trapped in front by Umesh Yadav. However, in a desperate attempt to continue his innings, the Australian captain sought the help of the dressing room over DRS call before he was sent walking back to the pavilion by umpires, who were upset over the developments on the field.
Kohli lashed out at Smith during the post-match press conference and accused the visitors of taking help from dressing room for DRS calls at least three times. Notably, the Australia captain had regretted his actions and said his act "was bit of a brain fade".
The Indian captain, who eventually led the side to a 2-1 win the series, all but called his counterpart a cheater.
Check out press conference here
'Kohli's claims big mystery'
"It wasn't until afterwards that I realised what a talking point it had become, fuelled by Kohli's post-match claims that we'd called on off-field assistance twice earlier in the match to help our on-field deliberations," Smith wrote in his book, as quoted by "ESPNCricinfo".
He added: "There was never anything further on the matter from the ICC and Virat never detailed the incidents he was referring to. And during the brief interactions we had - including at the captain's briefing for the IPL as that tournament followed the series - he was friendly and it was as if any ill-feeling he may have had over the incident had disappeared. It was and still is all a big mystery to me.
"As far as I was concerned, we'd never tried to consult with the dressing room beforehand and although he said he'd brought those previous occasions to the notice of the umpires, I can say categorically that we were never spoken to by either those umpires or match referee Chris Broad about any such breaches in protocol."
