Harbhajan Singh defends choice of pitches prepared in India-South Africa series

Harbhajan is hopeful of making it into India’s World T20 squad

Harbhajan Singh has come out in defence of the pitches prepared for the ongoing India-South Africa series by saying “Indian pitches assist spinners and there is nothing new about it”.

Speaking during the launch of the online portal BookMySports, Harbhajan said, “Host country takes advantage of the home conditions and this happens across the world. If not the home country, who is suppose to take the benefit out of it? In India, the pitches turn and it is happening for some good years now”.

The off-spinner, who is happy with the performance of both India and fellow offie Ravichandran Ashwin, was confident of India’s chances of making it 3-0.

“I am very happy that India is ahead in this series by 2-0 and have zero doubt on my mind about India winning the series 3-0,” the 35-year-old said.

When quizzed about the see-saw battle between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) about the possibility of a India-Pakistan series, the spinner was non-commital and said it was up to the two boards to decide where and when the series should take place.

“As a player, we will be following whatever the board tells us. Indian Cricket board is a parent to all of us (cricketers). It is their call,” he said.

Harbhajan, who spun Punjab into the knock-out stage of the Ranji Trophy, with a 10-wicket haul against Tamil Nadu is still hopeful of playing for India again. His match figures of 10/67 was Punjab’s first ten-wicket haul of the season and his personal best Ranji figures, beating his previous best of 6 for 54.

“I am playing cricket regularly. So be it upcoming series in Australia or World T20, I want to make sure that I am up for it. Like always I am ready to face any challenge and obviously performing in Ranji does help,” he said.

With Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja bowling so well in the Test series, Harbhajan’s comeback in the Test squad at least seems bleak. But a consistent season across all formats might just be enough to seal his place in the squad for the World T20 in March.