5 lesser-known facts about Harbhajan Singh's IPL career

Harbhajan Singh made up his mind to hang up his boots earlier today, ending a legendary cricketing career. The right-arm off-spinner made his debut in late 1990s and played the sport actively till 2021.

During his long career, Harbhajan Singh achieved many milestones. He won the Cricket World Cup in 2011 and ICC T20 World Cup in 2007 with the Indian squad. Apart from that, he also won four IPL trophies.

Singh played for three franchises - Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders - in his IPL career. He played a total of 163 IPL games, scalping 150 wickets at an economy rate of 7.11.

Now that the 41-year-old star has announced his retirement, here's a look at some lesser-known facts about his IPL career.

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#1 Harbhajan Singh was the first captain of Mumbai Indians

Harbhajan Singh played for Mumbai Indians in the IPL from 2008 to 2017

Mumbai Indians were the first franchise to sign Harbhajan Singh in the IPL. They acquired his services ahead of the inaugural season. Since Sachin Tendulkar was unavailable for the first few matches of IPL 2008, Singh got an opportunity to lead Mumbai.

He led the Mumbai-based franchise on their IPL debut. However, MI lost that match against Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets.

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#2 Harbhajan Singh's first and last IPL matches were against RCB

As mentioned earlier, Harbhajan Singh started his IPL career against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He scored two runs and picked up two wickets on his IPL debut in 2008.

13 years later, Harbhajan played his last IPL game in the Kolkata Knight Riders jersey against RCB. Incidentally, he scored two runs in his last game as well but he remained wicketless with the ball.

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#3 Harbhajan Singh holds the record for the best 7th wicket partnership in IPL history

Harbhajan Singh scored 833 runs in the IPL

Harbhajan Singh aggregated 833 runs for the three IPL teams he represented. He played some fantastic knocks for the Mumbai Indians, and in an IPL 2015 match against the Punjab Kings, Singh stitched up the best 7th-wicket partnership in the league's history with J Suchith.

MI were down to 59/6 in a run-chase of 178 runs when Singh and Suchith united forces. The Turbanator went berserk and smacked five fours and six sixes in his 24-ball 64. It seemed like MI would win the match, but they eventually fell short by 18 runs.

Suchith and Singh's 100-run partnership remains the best 7th-wicket partnership in IPL to date.

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#4 Harbhajan Singh is the highest-paid Indian bowler in IPL history

Harbhajan Singh ended his career as the highest-paid Indian bowler in IPL history. In the last 13 years, he earned ₹58.14 crore from the three IPL franchises. His highest IPL salary was ₹5.98 crore paid by MI from 2011 to 2013.

The right-arm off-spinner could soon lose the top spot in the list to Bhuvneshwar Kumar who has earned ₹51.72 crore ahead of the IPL 2022 Mega Auction.

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#5 Harbhajan Singh's last IPL wicket

Harbhajan Singh's last wicket came in CSK jersey

While Harbhajan Singh played three matches for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2021, he took his last IPL wicket in 2019 for the Chennai Super Kings. Sherfane Rutherford was the last batter to be dismissed by Singh in the IPL.

Singh took two wickets in the IPL 2019 Qualifier 2 match against Delhi Capitals. The first was Shikhar Dhawan and the second was Rutherford. Singh dismissed both batters caught out.