The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Life has come a full circle for Harbhajan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 10, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Life has come a full circle for Harbhajan

By S. Dinakar

BACK ON TOP: After a period in the wilderness, Harbhajan Singh has struck form again. - Photo: V.V. Krishnan

BANGALORE, OCT. 9. Life may not be as much about riding a crest as keeping that little flame burning during the darkest hour. Same time last year, Harbhajan Singh was staring into nothing but a long, lightless stretch.

He was in much agony, his spinning finger hurt, and casting a veil over his joyful, buoyant exterior, was a thick layer of pain. Even his otherwise radiant eyes seemed to lose their sparkle.

The sequence of events that followed - Harbhajan having to pull out of the Australian tour following the first Test in Brisbane and then undergoing a finger surgery Down Under - posed searching questions of his resilience and character.

Ask the Sardar about that grim phase and he will tell you that though the sheer disappointment of not representing India often brought him close to tears, his self-belief never deserted him, his passion for the game never waned.

He wanted to bowl again, and bowl for India.

Through it all

When the 24-year-old off-spinner raised his arms in triumph after scalping his 10th batsman of the first Test at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday, the two varying emotional shades of life - exuberance and a sense of relief - were visible.

"I am not God, I am human," said Harbhajan later dwelling on the vagaries of form and fortune on the cricketing highway, and how people responded to them. Simply put, he has been through it all.

Harbhajan's 11 for 224 in the first Test arrived as a sliver of hope for the Indians in the series, amidst much gloom.

After an ordinary first day, when his length and line were awry, he had returned to haunt the Aussies again. In the latter stages of the Australian first innings and the second innings, he bowled an exemplary off-stump line, and the combination of sharp off-spin and bounce, apart from the occasional away drifter had the visitor in a tangle, although it can be argued that he did not operate well when it mattered - on the first day.

Astonishing

The offie now has an astonishing six straight five wickets hauls in three successive Tests at home against the Aussies, although his latest effort is most likely to go in vain, with the Indians on the brink of defeat. Harbhajan - 162 wickets in 37 Tests with 13 five and three 10-wicket hauls - has scalped an astonishing 46 batsmen in only six Tests against the Aussies.

The only off-spinner with a better record in a similar span at the expense of the men in the baggy green is England's Jim Laker, who grabbed 46 wickets in the five Tests of the 1956 Ashes in the Old Blighty.

Cricketing tales are often woven on slender threads, and some of them have common colours running through them as well. In Harbhajan's case, it's Bangalore and Australia.

It was against Australia as a 17-year old that Harbhajan made his debut at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here in 1997-98, and though figures of two for 112 and none for 24 are not of the earthshaking kind, there were glimpses of his talent and a heart for the big stage.

Turbanator arrives

It would be against Australia again, after a career-threatening period when his action came under scrutiny that he would make a comeback, taking on Steve Waugh's men in 2001, and memories of that series still flash past the mind's eye - the immortal hat-trick at the Eden Gardens, the destructive match and series winning bowling in Kolkata and Chennai.

Harbhajan finished with an awesome 32 wickets in the three Test series, with 10-wicket match hauls in the second and third Tests. Now he was called the Turbanator.

The offie would play his next Test against his favourite rival at the 'Gabba in Brisbane, late last year, picking up a lone wicket, struggling to grip the ball due to the swollen finger and appearing a shadow of his former self. Now the wheel has turned a full circle in the Garden City.

He is a vibrant personality on the field, someone who enjoys the games, relishes the sniff of a battle, and loves to fight when the chips are down.

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