FRIENDS WHAT A COINCIDENCE ON THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR 2021 I AM WRITING MY 1000th BLOG
Recently Harbhajan Singh retired from all formsof cricket, actually in the last 5 years he was mainly playing IPL and slowly even in IPL he has become a reserve player, and he hardly used to play a few games per season. But his career as a spinner has been excellent in Tests, and other forms of cricket. I am writing about what record he created and the milestones he reached in his career spanning over two decades.
- No Indian bowler has taken a test hat-trick before Harbhajan Singh. He achieved this feat against Australia at Kolkata in 2001 by dismissing Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, and Shane Warne.
- No other player in test cricket has scored two hundreds in the same series while batting at no. 8. He made 115 in the second innings of Ahmedabad test against New Zealand, and in the next test at Hyderabad he scored unbeaten 111.
- He is the only Indian bowler to take four consecutive five- wicket hauls in test cricket. He accomplished this feat against Australia in March 2001, when he took 7/13 and 6/73 at Kolkata and then took 7/133 and 8/84 at Chennai.
- There has been only one better performance by an Indian bowler in a test match than Harbhajan’s 15/217 (against Australia at Chennai in 2001)- that is of Narendra Hirwani’s 16/136 at Chennai in 1987-88.
- He is the second non- English player to take three ten-wicket hauls against Australia- the other being Richard Hadlee of New Zealand.
- He is among five Indian bowlers with all-round double of 1000runs and 100 wickets in both tests and One Day Internationals. Others are Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Irfan Pathan, and Ravindra Jadeja.
- He is the youngest off- spinner ever to play for India. He was of the age 17 years and 265 days when he made his debut for the Indian team.
- 32 wickets taken by Harbhajan against Australia in 2001 home series-the most by an Indian bowler in a three -match series. In fact there are only three better performances in all test cricket in a series of three matches or more George Lohmann (35 wickets in 1895-96 vs South Africa),Sydney Barnes )34 wickets in 1912 series vs South Africa), and Richard Hadlee (33 wickets in 1985-86 vs Australia).
- 42 numbers of sixes hit by Harbhajan Singh in his test career- the most by an Indian while batting at number eight or lower.
- 46 numbers of test taken by Harbhajan Singh to take 200 test wickets- then a record for an Indian bowler (Ravichandra Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have since broken this record).
- Harbhajan has taken 60 or more wickets in tests in calendar year-60 in 2001, 63 in 2002, and 63 in 2008.
- He took 102 wickets in international cricket-the most by an Indian bowler in the calendar across all formats.
- 150 wickets taken by Harbhajan in IPL-the fifth most by any bowler.
- His 417 test wickets in test cricket is the fourth- highest for India.
- He has taken 707 wickets in all international cricket (Tests +ODIs + T2OI). Only Anil Kumble has taken more wickets for India- 953.
Looking at the above achievements , Harbhajan Singh will always be remembered as great cricketer for India for years to come.
IN THE END WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2022.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
31st December 2021
Tejinder Singh Sethi
Six days after calling time on his international career, Harbhajan Singh has revealed that he still wonders why wasn’t he playing despite taking 400 wickets despite being just 31-year-old. He added, he doesn’t know who played a part in his ouster or who in the team had a problem in his presence. A veteran of 103 Tests, ‘Bhajji’ said he could have had 100 Test wickets with time on his side being just 31. The off-spinner played his last Test match in Sri Lanka back in 2015.
Sapna Wadhwa
A great cricketer. He could have played a couple of years more