By D N Singh
Eyebrows were raised when the news about Harbhajan Singh, India’s one of the celebrated off spinners’ retirement was reported. The 41 year old cricketer, fondly called as ‘Bhajji’ or ‘Turbanator’ almost abandoned a thrill and curiosity among his fans and colleagues in cricket.
His teen-aged entry into the field of cricket has to date lasted for over 23 brilliant years lending a new twist to the off-spinning and a threat for the batting greats facing him.
A Record Machine
His unusual curve of the body gave a lot of deception to the men facing and in 2001 he emerged as an enviable bowler first to take a hat-trick in test cricket. And that was a tough challenge for Bhajji as India was facing the mighty Australian side when batsmen like Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilcrist and so on with brilliant knocks behind were in the team. Bhajji dismissed them by his crafty bowling and seams.
India won the match, played then in Eden Gardens by 171 runs, a rare feat which added a feather on Harbhajan’s cap.
There are number of feathers Bhajji had on his cap. In a three Test series, he bagged most number of wickets as an Indian in a first getting 32 wickets in the series in 2001. Harbhajan averages 17.03 in his wicket taking feat.
Matching Other Greats
With that Bhajji joined the league of Axar Patel,27, R Ashwini 27, and Anil Kumble 24 but surpassing the others above.
Still Harbhajan remained unstoppable and records came and soon he struck a new mark second best match figures by any Indian bowler as his 15/217 in the third Test match at Chennai helped India win the series 2-1.
Harbhajan also has the second most wickets for India against Australia in Tests. He has played 18 Test matches against Australia, picking 95 wickets at an average of 29.96, in which he has taken five wickets in an innings seven times and ten wickets in a match three times.
Harbhajan Singh is the second youngest Indian bowler to take five wickets in an ODI. He took 5/43 against England in 2002 at the age of 21 years and 215 days.
And it all went on a rising graph as the young cricketer from Punjab lived with his hunger for wickets. With 150 wickets from 163 matches at an economy rate of 7.08, Harbhajan Singh is the fifth-highest wicket-taker in Indian Premier League history. Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga (170), West Indies’ Dywane Bravo (167), and India’s Amit Mishra (166) and Piyush Chawla (157) are ahead of him.
