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.