London, Jul 11 (IANS): The 2005 Ashes is widely rated as one of the greatest Test series of all time but it was one to forget for the legendary Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist. England won the series 2-1 and Gilchrist managed just 181 runs at an average of 22.62. His highest score of the series was an unbeaten 49.

"There's one time that jumps right at me, and two examples that both happened in the 2005 Ashes," Gilchrist said on The Pitch Side Expert Podcast. "That was my one time where I was absolutely being strangled by self-doubt and fear of failing.

"Just that it felt like the England team and Vaughany [Michael Vaughan], and Freddie [Flintoff] obviously, more so with the ball but even that whole attack, the field positioning, the tactic of coming around the wicket, which I don't think was necessarily ever a well-thought-out clever tactic, they just came about [with it] and were quick enough to realise that, and latch onto it and make adjustments, and I wasn't able to.

"That was the first time I remember going into games, particularly by the time we got up to the third Test at Manchester. Going there where we had to try and bat out that last day to salvage a draw. Just feeling so unnatural and fighting my natural instincts, but through fear of it not working. And then trying to just occupy the crease, and that was never going to work. So that probably was the primary time in my career when I really felt suffocated by some self-doubt and uncertainty."

Credited with changing the role of the wicketkeeper batsman, Gilchrist had a distinguished career in Test cricket, scoring 5570 runs at an average of 47.6.