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Harbhajan Singh

A profile

The Times of India, July 9, 2011

K Shriniwas Rao | TNN

To boast 400 wickets in Test matches while you can look ahead to another five years of international cricket is no mean feat. No matter how much the critics harp on Harbhajan Singh being over the hill and riding on his luck these days, to walk out there and fill your bag with as many Test scalps as he’s done requires more than just mere effort.

Harbhajan has done that. He is the fourth highest wicket-taker in Tests among spinners and 11th overall, right behind the likes of Kapil (Dev), (Richard) Hadlee, (Shaun) Pollock, (Wasim) Akram and (Curtly) Ambrose. That’s quite a list to join.

The off-spinner, who has faced more ups and downs in his career perhaps than any other bowler in recent years, deserves an ovation. For once, let us keep aside the small talk that revolves more often than not around his bowling average.

He speaks about his late father’s dream of wanting his son to play for India, his family supporting him at a time when he was no more interested in pursuing cricket, former and present teammates backing him to the hilt, the glory days of the 2001 Test series against Australia.

He even uttered the word ‘average’ when he spoke — 31.80 in 96 Test matches. “If you look at the different kinds of formats that a cricketer has to bowl in — 50-over and Twenty20 — the overall average is bound to change. Any bowler, with the kind of cricket and the amount of it that is played today, will agree that averages are not easy to maintain,” he says.

Perhaps he realises that in the list of eleven bowlers, who form the 400-club, he’s the only one to average beyond 30. The closest to him are former India teammates Kapil Dev (29.64) and Anil Kumble (29.65). None of the rest let the figure fall beyond 25.

He doesn’t really need to give that a thought but just bask in the glory of reaching there. But you cannot ignore the fact that it rankles him.

A summing up

A

Dwaipayan Datta, Dec 25, 2021: The Times of India

Harbhajan Singh's record in International & Franchise cricket- Instances of 10 wickets or more in a Test; Batsmen dismissed by Harbhajan most often, as on Dec 25, 2021
From: Dwaipayan Datta, Dec 25, 2021: The Times of India

CHENNAI: Harbhajan Singh was one of the fiercest competitors Indian cricket has seen in the last 20 years. It was this combative, losing-is-not-an-option approach that characterized the spinner and made him a favourite of Sourav Ganguly when he was coming up through the ranks in the early 2000s.

It’s common knowledge that if it was left to the selectors, Harbhajan wouldn’t have played the 2001 series against Australia. Bhajji’s statemate Sarandeep Singh was the selectors’ choice but it was Ganguly’s gutt-feeling and the offspinner’s ability to bowl the doosra that got him the nod.

“I had problems at National Cricket Academy and I was suspended for a bit. Then there were issues with my action early on in my career which were dealt with, but most importantly, I had just lost my father ahead of that series. There was something that Dada saw in me before picking me ahead of a few others who were senior to me,” Harbhajan had told TOI sometime back, reminiscing about that iconic series.

While his Eden Gardens hat-trick and 34 wickets for the series are part of cricket folklore, one mustn’t forget that under immense pressure, Bhajji got the winning runs against Glen McGrath at Chepauk that took India home.

“It was probably god’s will that I had to go out there and get those last four runs. When I look at the Youtube videos now, I remember that I was expecting a bouncer from McGrath when we needed two. But he tried yorking me and I just put bat to ball. He had removed the point before bowling that delivery and the ball went just there as I ran for life,” Bhajji said.

Those were the moments that shaped Harbhajan’s career and made him an integral part of the Indian cricket team for about 10 years. Even if you take the routine home wins out of the equation, Harbhajan played crucial roles in some of the most important away wins of the decade --- be it Leeds in 2002, Jamaica 2006 or Durban 2010.

Bhajji, though, was dropped post the 2007 ODI World Cup disaster for the England series. It wasn’t an easy phase for the spinner as he saw India, playing with Ramesh Powar as the No. 1 offie, winning a Test series in England as he tried to work his way back going through the grind of County cricket. And once he was back, Harbhajan never looked back for the next four years.

His teammates knew what Bhajji meant for the team, and that’s why when he was put into a tricky corner -- the Monkeygate of 2007 at SCG -- the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble came out all guns blazing to defend him.

Career highlights

Harbhajan Singh in "The 400 wickets club"

1 Harbhajan Singh is the first Indian bowler to have accomplished a hat-trick in Tests, achieving the feat against Australia by dismissing Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne in the 2000-01 Kolkata Test.

2. He is also the only Indian bowler to bag four consecutive five-wicket hauls in an innings — 7/123 & 6/73 at Kolkata; 7/133 & 8/84 at Chennai against Australia in 2000-01

3. He is the only Indian bowler to bag 15 wickets in a Test match against Australia —15 for 217 at Chennai in 2000-01.

4. Number of times in his career, the offie has taken 60 wickets or more in a calendar year — 63 (ave.23.22) in 13 Tests in 2002; 63 (ave.31.53) in 13 Tests in 2008 and 60 (ave.25.95) in 12 Tests in 2001.

5. Number of times Harbhajan has dismissed Ricky Ponting in 14 matches — the most times he has dismissed a batsman Most wickets captured by an Indian bowler in a Test series against Australia. Harbhajan averaged 17.03 in the three-Test series against the Aussies in 2000-01.

Learnt slider from Sachin

Bowling record, country-wise: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka

K Shriniwas Rao | TNN

To make Ricky Ponting a bunny is by itself a huge achievement in any form of cricket and Harbhajan Singh can happily claim he managed that. But the off-spinner regards the former Australia captain as the best he ever bowled to.

In 2001, just before the series against Australia, Harbhajan said he’d be looking to bowl well against Ponting because he shuffles his feet well and is a great batsman. Even today, he maintains the same. Among other scalps that keep lingering in his mind, Harbhajan remembers his first Test wicket when he clean bowled Greg Blewett.

“I got Michael Hussey in Bangalore, it was a doosra and he left it from outside off and it came a long way in. Even I was surprised with the delivery. I have only seen Muttiah Muralitharan bowl that kind of delivery,” he says.

There has been a collection of great batsmen who he has dismissed — Hayden, Lara, Waugh — and the bowler holds them all close to his heart. Harbhajan thanks Sachin Tendulkar for helping him with his bowling when it came to targetting batsmen who tackled spin exceptionally well. “Whenever I bowl to Sachin at the nets, I always ask him what is happening and what I should be looking to do on wickets like these, and wherever we are touring, whether it is in Australia or New Zealand, I take his advice.

“He showed me how to use the slider. It can be very useful in Oneday and Test cricket and I have got a couple of wickets with that ball. You hold that ball like an off-spinner but you release the ball with one finger, so it just goes like an outswinger. But it can happen only with the new ball,” he says.

BHAJJI’S HIGH-FIVES

The 2001 series against Australia gave a major push to Bhajji’s floundering career. The offie picked up 7/123 in the first-innings of the second Test in Kolkata, including a hat-trick. He sealed the win with 6/73 in the second-innings

Bhajji followed his Kolkata Test heroics with 15 wickets in the third Test in Chennai to end the series with 32 wickets

The Punjab tweaker’s 6/63 in the second-innings at Hamilton was instrumental in setting up India’s 10-wicket win over New Zealand in 2009 The Turbanator’s only 10-wicket haul away from home came against Sri Lanka, at Galle, in 2008. Bhajji scalped 6/102 and 4/51 as India notched up a 170-run win

Harbhajan, the batsman, scored his maiden Test ton against New Zealand, at Ahmedabad. The 115-run knock remains his top score in Tests.