Harbhajan Singh

Profile:

Harbhajan Singh's road to glory has not been an easy one. The 20-year-old off-spinner from Jullunder was plagued by allegations of a jerk in his bowling action and insinuations of having attitude problems. After almost losing his job with employers Indian Airlines and being saddened immensely by the death of his father, Harbhajan was reborn as a cricketer.

Training doubly hard, the fiery youngster readied himself for the touring Australians. In the absence of ace leg-spinner Anil Kumble, India were desperately on the look out for a strike bowler. Bowling with a high arm action, extracting good bounce and considerable turn on good Test match wickets, Harbhajan Singh destroyed the Aussies by scalping 32 wickets in the three Test series. Harbhajan's performance had outdone the previous best wicket tally for an Indian in a Test series against Australia, beating legendary left-arm spinner Bishen Singh Bedi's haul of 31 wickets in 1977-78 in Australia. What made the feat especially commendable was the fact that Harbhajan notched up his wickets in three Tests as against Bedi's five.

The most special moment in the series for Harbhajan was undoubtedly the hat-trick he snared in the first innings of the second Test at Kolkata, when he dismissed Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne off successive deliveries. In the three Tests, Harbhajan returned figures of 4/132, 13/196 and 15/217, thereby leading India to a famous 2-1 victory.

In subsequent tours of Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka in 2001, though, Harbhajan Singh was not able to repeat the magic. After an ordinary series against South Africa, 'Bhajji' once again made his mark with a five-wicket haul against England at Mohali in early 2002 that helped India to the only victory of the series. In the one-dayers too Harbhajan was effective, notching up a career best five for 43 at Mumbai. But the Caribbean did not prove to be a happy hunting ground. Despite yet another five-fer at Jamaica, Harbhajan ended up on the losing side.