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by Bhavya Kumar Vasudevan

The Sardar from Jalandhar began his career quietly without any hype being created on his debut. There was a look on his face at that time, which reminds me of Parthiv Patel's youth today. Soon after the beginning of his career, Harbhajan Singh was asked questions about his bowling action, which resulted in him being dropped from the Indian side. After sorting out his action he returned with a bang.

Australia's tour of India in 2000-01 proved to be a magical series for Harbhajan. He took a
total of 32 wickets in the 3 match series toppling all Australian batsman, one after the other. The 32 wickets involved a hattrick in the 1st innings of the second test in Kolkata where he took 13 wickets in the match, followed by a career best of 8 for 84 in the second innings of the 3rd test in Chennai, where he did even better by picking 15 wickets in the match. This performance along with VVS's batting took the series away from Australia and halted their straight 16 Test Match Wins record. Harbhajan had now announced himself as a potential threat to any team in the World.

Since that Test series, Harbhajan's performance in Tests as well as One Day cricket has been consistent. He has not repeated that performance against Australia again as such, but has been taking wickets regularly for India. He is also known to be comically effective with his batting where he has come good at times. His contribution with the bat in the Natwest Trophy final allowed India to reach to that figure of 326. He is a very fine talent for India, but due to injuries Harbhajan is not able to perform regularly. He missed the all important tours of Australia and Pakistan due to the injured right hand middle finger. For his and for the team's sake it is necessary for him to be fully fit, as he will be a very important member of the team for years to come.

Statistics of Harbhajan Singh's Career :