Harbhajan Singh Stats

Harbhajan Singh made his Test debut against Australia in the 1997-98 series. He played his first-ever test match in the third test of the series. He ended the match with just one wicket to his name. In the same year, next month he made his ODI debut against New Zealand in Sharjah.

Controversies early during his career and competition in the spin department didn’t allow Harbhajan Singh to flourish for some years after that.

However, he kept performing for Punjab, taking wickets consistently. It, eventually, bore fruits as he was once again called in for the 2001 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the absence of Anil Kumble.

# Turning Point in Harbhajan Singh’s Career: Having completed three years to his career, Harbhajan Singh didn’t have a lot of accolades to boast about. He needed one outstanding series to make a show his class on the international stage and 2001 Border-Gavaskar series gave him that chance. The then skipper Sourav Ganguly was keen to add the Punjab spinner into the team.

Harbhajan Singh took the Australian side by surprise, spinning a web around them in the series. He took the world by storm after picking 13 wickets in the second test at Eden Gardens, helping the team win the test by a massive margin of 171 runs.

# Hat-Trick At Eden Gardens: His performance at Eden Garden was highlighted with a brilliant hat-trick he took on the opening day of the second test at Eden Gardens. He accounted for the wickets of Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, and Shane Warne.

“To tell you the truth I was apprehensive if I would justify my selection. Australia had lost just one wicket in the first two sessions. They were just belting us. (Mathew) Hayden’s wicket gave us the breakthrough.” Harbhajan Singh said after his performance at Eden Gardens.

“One wicket led to another. I was happy to get Mark Waugh. And then three in a row. Ponting was a prized wicket because he can be unsparing. There was not much turn and I just looked to bowl wicket-to-wicket. I was lucky in the sense that the ball went straight, did not turn.” He added

He made sure he tells everyone that his performance in the second test wasn’t just a fluke as he came up with an even better performance in the next test match. He picked as many as 15 test wickets in the third test, helping India win the test by the 2 wickets and thereby take the series 2-1.

# 2003 World Cup: Harbhajan Singh was preferred over Anil Kumble in the 2003 World Cup. Playing as a first-choice bowler, Harbhajan took 11 wickets at an average of 30.45 and economy rate of 3.92. in 10 games. Bhajji took an average of 2 wickets in every match and had played every match except the Pakistan game in the group stage. He was the fourth leading wicket-taker amongst all Indian bowling.

In the final match of the 2003 World Cup, Harbhajan Singh was the only bowler to have taken a wicket, ending his figures with 2/49 from eight overs. India, though, lost that final and with that, the hope of winning a world cup title for the first time after 1983.

Harbhajan Singh remained a force to be reckoned with in India’s spin department until the Indian Premier League came into existence. The Indian spinner was accused of losing his art of wicket-taking ability.

# 54 vs Australia, 1st Test at Bangalore, 2008: One Of The Highlights of the Series: Many believe the partnership between Zaheer and Harbhajan in this game helped turn the tide over Australia in 2008. Australia had put up 430 and India was in danger of following on at 195 for six, when Harbhajan joined Sourav Ganguly. Though India managed to avoid the follow on, Ganguly was soon dismissed – which left a huge task for the two bowlers. Zaheer and Harbhajan frustrated the Aussies as their fifties kept them at bay. Harbhajan had a relatively sedate outing with his 54 off 110 balls, with only five fours, but had done the job for India.

In his illustrious international career, Harbhajan Singh has played 103 Tests, 236 ODIs and 28 T20 internationals, in which he has managed to take 417, 269 and 25 wickets respectively.