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.
