Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh Plaha, commonly known as the Turbanator, is a specialist off-spinner who was the backbone of the spin department in his prime years. An offie who kept varying his lines and lengths to outfox the batsman, and burst onto the scene with the ability of a ‘Doosra’. A two-time World Cup winner, four-time IPL winner, two-time Champions League winner; there isn’t anything left in Harbhajan’s trophy cabinet.

A cricketing pundit might be critical about the spinner’s action or the fewer loops in his deliveries, but what makes Harbhajan special is his aggression of a fast-bowler and puts the batsman under the pump. He is also one of the most controversial cricketers, but in all fairness, Bhajji is inarguably one of the cricketers to have represented India.  

The Jalandhar-born spinner broke into the Punjab state team as a 15-year-old, on the back of success at the U16 level. In 1997, he debuted for Punjab against Services, and after a brilliant maiden season, and got into the Duleep Trophy team. Meanwhile, the spinner played the U19 World Cup for India in 1998. 

With Harbhajan’s unmatched performances, the national selectors couldn’t turn a blind eye and was called in to make his Test debut against Australia in the third game of the 1997-98 Test series. A month later, he got his ODI cap against New Zealand at the Coca-Cola Cup, however, the spinner’s career saw an early dip and after playing a few games, Harbhajan got dropped from the Indian side. 

n 2020, the spinner was sent to NCA to study under EAS Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan but was sent back on disciplinary grounds. Harbhajan made a solid comeback during the final-frontier series against Australia in 2001. 

The then Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly literally fought with the national selectors to bring Bhajji back in the team and the spinner stood on his skipper’s hope. He finished the series as the highest wicket-taker with 32 scalps, including the first-ever Test hat-trick by an Indian and there was no looking back for Harbhajan since then. 

During Ganguly’s tenure, Harbhajan became India’s biggest match-winner in both home and foreign assignments. Also, he went on to become the primary spinner to take the flag from Anil Kumble. He also proved to be India’s vital cog during the 2002 Champions Trophy as well as the 2003 World Cup where India finished as the runners-up. 

As India emerged at the world stage, the ‘Turbanator’ became a global icon. However, how can a successful story be foretold without any controversies? In 2005, BCCI appointed Greg Chapell who named Harbhajan as one of the problematic players. 

Under Chappell’s regime, both India and Bhajji had one of their lowest times during the 2007 World Cup. As the Australian head coach resigned post the 50-overs multilateral event and Harbhajan came back as strong as ever in the inaugural World T20, where the spinner finished as India’s third-highest wicket-taker and helped India clinch the trophy. 

In 2008, another controversy followed Harbhajan, this one came during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He was alleged of abusing Andrew Symonds during the SCG Test and later the spinner was fined 50% of his match fees. Later that year, Harbhajan was involved in a scandal yet again. During an IPL game between Mumbai and Punjab, the spinner slapped S. Sreesanth after losing the game that led to him being banned for a year from the league. 

He was also part of the Indian winning team during the 2011 World Cup victory when the Men in Blue lifted the cup after 28 years and Harbhajan led the spinning department during the event. Over the years, he has also been part of various Indian squads during the T20 World Cups between 2009 and 2016. Interestingly, the spinner did not appear in the next 50-overs World Cup, since being part of the world-cup winning 2011 Indian team. 

Post the World Cup, the spinner missed from the national team due to injuries and in 2012, he was dropped from the Indian team due to a dip of form and the emergence of spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin & Ravindra Jadeja made things difficult for Bhajji to break into the Indian side. 

He then made yet another comeback during the one-off Test against Bangladesh in 2015 and subsequently toured Zimbabwe for the T20I and ODI series. Next year, the veteran was named for the T20I series against Australia and Sri Lanka, and then got selected for the Asia Cup 2016 and the World T20 of 2016. 

Harbhajan has also been a very successful asset in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Initially, the spinner started his IPL stint with Mumbai Indians in the inaugural season and stayed at the Wankhede-based franchise until 2017, where he snapped three IPL and two Champion League titles with the franchise. In the next season, the spinner was bought by Chennai Superkings and bagged another IPL trophy in his first edition in the yellow jersey and played the 2019 season with CSK. He missed the 2020 season due to some unlisted personal reasons and the club released him ahead of the 14th edition. In February 2021, Kolkata Knight Riders acquired Harbhajan’s services for the 2021 season, and the veteran would like to win his fifth title before he retires for the game. 

(As of March 2021)