Chinmay Kore
Banned
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- 15 Mar 2015
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Harbhajan Singh may never be regarded as the most skilled spinner to play for India and he'd probably live with that. For prodigious talents like Erapalli Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi and Anil Kumble have, at different times, exhibited skills far beyond the cricketing world's comprehension. Yet, what Harbhajan lacked in raw skill, he more than made up for it with an insatiable desire to fight to a point of no return.
Some of Harbhajan's greatest triumphs have been against Australia, by far the most dominant side of his generation, and performances against whom serve as benchmarks of ability. The legendary Napolean Bonaparte once famously said, You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you'll teach him all your art of battle. In more ways than one, after multiple battles against the Aussies, Harbhajan appeared to embody the Australian spunk more than any other Indian ever did.
He didn't always win, not many did against the Aussies anyway, but when he did, the cricketing fraternity was forced to take notice. On his 35th birthday, we take a look back at Harbhajan's international career, more specifically at his, sometimes amicable, sometimes acrimonious relationship with them Aussies.
1. First, they ignore you
Harbhajan's debut was hardly anything to write about. Amidst murmurs of favouritism, he made his Test debut, aged 18, in the third and final Test of Australia's tour of India in 1998. Sachin Tendulkar's batting exploits had sealed the series for India by the time the teams arrived in Bangalore and despite scoring another hundred, Australia romped home to a consolation win. Harbhajan's contribution though, was hardly noteworthy. He finished with very modest match-figures of 2/136. He was subsequently left out of the ODI series that followed. When he did make his debut in the Coca-Cola Tri-series in Sharjah, Harbhajan gave a sneak peak of things to come and got himself suspended after giving a sendoff to Ricky Ponting, a man he would tussle with for a long, long time. He didn't play in the final and soon disappeared from the international circuit.
2. Then, they underestimate you
Early in 2001, even as the rest of the cricketing world geared up for Steve Waugh's quest to conquer the 'Final Frontier', Harbhajan ploughed on in the domestic circuit. Having been dropped due to indifferent form and the steady emergence of Murali Kartik, Harbhajan returned to the domestic circuit grind. However, a last-minute injury to Anil Kumble ahead of the three-match Test series prompted Sourav Ganguly to personally request for Harbhajan's inclusion in the Test side. The novice off-spinner played a huge part in what has since been considered a watershed series in India's Test history. Despite being subject to a brutal counter-attack from Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist in the first Test, Harbhajan ended with a remarkable 32 wickets at 17.03 and in the process became the first Indian to take a Test match hat-trick (at Eden Gardens). Fittingly, it was Harbhajan who struck the winning runs, off a Glenn McGrath delivery, in the final Test at Chepauk - prompting a stunned Steve Waugh to exclaim, We knew he would play a role but we certainly didn't expect him to have such an impact.
I will pick Harbhajan for his superb skills. Because, like Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan), he could lift his game to a level beyond the reach of conventional players. - Matthew Hayden.
3. At times they ridicule you
Following the success of 2001, the Harbhajan-Kumble pair routinely helped India to wins in the spin-friendly subcontinent conditions, victories in overseas conditions were few and far between. Harbhajan, in particular, was criticized for his no shows in the tours of West Indies and England. By the time the Australians came back in 2004 for another crack at India, his form had dipped considerably. He pulled out of the third Test at Nagpur citing food poisoning. The Australians though were having none of it. The put the ailment down to 'greentrackitis' - 'a severe intolerance to green wickets likely to give you nothing as a spin bowler.' The Aussies completed the series win despite Harbhajan's five-fer on a dust bowl in Mumbai.
4. Then they fight you
Things took a turn for the ugly when the two sides squared off in the infamous Sydney Test of 2008. After a largely insipid performance in Melbourne, Harbhajan rekindled the fighter in him with a dogged 129-run stand with Tendulkar as India ate into Australia's first innings lead. He also dismissed the Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting twice in the match. However, he'll always be remembered for what transpired after that game. He was charged with a Level 3 offence of racially abusing Andrew Symonds during an on-field altercation and was banned for three games (later reduced to one). Old nemesis, Hayden would go on to call him an 'obnoxious weed' but Harbhajan held firm in defiance. But, champions are made of sterner stuff as Harbhajan showed in the years to follow.
5. And then you win
Following his return from suspension, Harbhajan Singh put in a lion-hearted performance in the best-of-three finals of the ensuing CB tri-series. Incidentally, he had a hand in dismissing both Symonds and Hayden in each of the two finals. In the first, he sent back both Symonds and Hayden in the space of four overs and in the second, he ran Hayden out before catching Symonds plumb in front of the stumps as India completed a historic series win. If that wasn't enough, Harbhajan returned to torment the Ausssies in the return Test series later that year in India. Apart from match-saving innings in Bangalore and Nagpur, he dismissed Ricky Ponting for the 10th time in Tests and completed his 300th Test wicket. He ended as the joint-highest wicket-taker (15 wickets at 28.86) in addition to scoring 125 runs at 41.66 as India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Harbhajan would go on take a further 12 wickets in the two-match series at home in 2010 and even Hayden, after all those incidents, remarked, "Harbhajan brought an intensity and controversy to the contest that put bums on seats. There was a real 'game on' feel to anything he was involved with. He could be impetuous at times - and he could make you feel impetuous. His over-the-top celebrations - like doing a lap of the Gabba after getting Ricky Ponting out - were cringe-worthy.
"But I will pick Harbhajan for his superb skills. Because, like Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan), he could lift his game to a level beyond the reach of conventional players."
Some of Harbhajan's greatest triumphs have been against Australia, by far the most dominant side of his generation, and performances against whom serve as benchmarks of ability. The legendary Napolean Bonaparte once famously said, You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you'll teach him all your art of battle. In more ways than one, after multiple battles against the Aussies, Harbhajan appeared to embody the Australian spunk more than any other Indian ever did.
He didn't always win, not many did against the Aussies anyway, but when he did, the cricketing fraternity was forced to take notice. On his 35th birthday, we take a look back at Harbhajan's international career, more specifically at his, sometimes amicable, sometimes acrimonious relationship with them Aussies.
1. First, they ignore you
Harbhajan's debut was hardly anything to write about. Amidst murmurs of favouritism, he made his Test debut, aged 18, in the third and final Test of Australia's tour of India in 1998. Sachin Tendulkar's batting exploits had sealed the series for India by the time the teams arrived in Bangalore and despite scoring another hundred, Australia romped home to a consolation win. Harbhajan's contribution though, was hardly noteworthy. He finished with very modest match-figures of 2/136. He was subsequently left out of the ODI series that followed. When he did make his debut in the Coca-Cola Tri-series in Sharjah, Harbhajan gave a sneak peak of things to come and got himself suspended after giving a sendoff to Ricky Ponting, a man he would tussle with for a long, long time. He didn't play in the final and soon disappeared from the international circuit.
2. Then, they underestimate you
Early in 2001, even as the rest of the cricketing world geared up for Steve Waugh's quest to conquer the 'Final Frontier', Harbhajan ploughed on in the domestic circuit. Having been dropped due to indifferent form and the steady emergence of Murali Kartik, Harbhajan returned to the domestic circuit grind. However, a last-minute injury to Anil Kumble ahead of the three-match Test series prompted Sourav Ganguly to personally request for Harbhajan's inclusion in the Test side. The novice off-spinner played a huge part in what has since been considered a watershed series in India's Test history. Despite being subject to a brutal counter-attack from Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist in the first Test, Harbhajan ended with a remarkable 32 wickets at 17.03 and in the process became the first Indian to take a Test match hat-trick (at Eden Gardens). Fittingly, it was Harbhajan who struck the winning runs, off a Glenn McGrath delivery, in the final Test at Chepauk - prompting a stunned Steve Waugh to exclaim, We knew he would play a role but we certainly didn't expect him to have such an impact.
I will pick Harbhajan for his superb skills. Because, like Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan), he could lift his game to a level beyond the reach of conventional players. - Matthew Hayden.
3. At times they ridicule you
Following the success of 2001, the Harbhajan-Kumble pair routinely helped India to wins in the spin-friendly subcontinent conditions, victories in overseas conditions were few and far between. Harbhajan, in particular, was criticized for his no shows in the tours of West Indies and England. By the time the Australians came back in 2004 for another crack at India, his form had dipped considerably. He pulled out of the third Test at Nagpur citing food poisoning. The Australians though were having none of it. The put the ailment down to 'greentrackitis' - 'a severe intolerance to green wickets likely to give you nothing as a spin bowler.' The Aussies completed the series win despite Harbhajan's five-fer on a dust bowl in Mumbai.
4. Then they fight you
Things took a turn for the ugly when the two sides squared off in the infamous Sydney Test of 2008. After a largely insipid performance in Melbourne, Harbhajan rekindled the fighter in him with a dogged 129-run stand with Tendulkar as India ate into Australia's first innings lead. He also dismissed the Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting twice in the match. However, he'll always be remembered for what transpired after that game. He was charged with a Level 3 offence of racially abusing Andrew Symonds during an on-field altercation and was banned for three games (later reduced to one). Old nemesis, Hayden would go on to call him an 'obnoxious weed' but Harbhajan held firm in defiance. But, champions are made of sterner stuff as Harbhajan showed in the years to follow.
5. And then you win
Following his return from suspension, Harbhajan Singh put in a lion-hearted performance in the best-of-three finals of the ensuing CB tri-series. Incidentally, he had a hand in dismissing both Symonds and Hayden in each of the two finals. In the first, he sent back both Symonds and Hayden in the space of four overs and in the second, he ran Hayden out before catching Symonds plumb in front of the stumps as India completed a historic series win. If that wasn't enough, Harbhajan returned to torment the Ausssies in the return Test series later that year in India. Apart from match-saving innings in Bangalore and Nagpur, he dismissed Ricky Ponting for the 10th time in Tests and completed his 300th Test wicket. He ended as the joint-highest wicket-taker (15 wickets at 28.86) in addition to scoring 125 runs at 41.66 as India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Harbhajan would go on take a further 12 wickets in the two-match series at home in 2010 and even Hayden, after all those incidents, remarked, "Harbhajan brought an intensity and controversy to the contest that put bums on seats. There was a real 'game on' feel to anything he was involved with. He could be impetuous at times - and he could make you feel impetuous. His over-the-top celebrations - like doing a lap of the Gabba after getting Ricky Ponting out - were cringe-worthy.
"But I will pick Harbhajan for his superb skills. Because, like Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan), he could lift his game to a level beyond the reach of conventional players."
