Former captain Sourav Ganguly today said the Indian Cricket Board should have ensured that senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was not kept out of the national side for more than six months.
“You can call it my bias or love for Harbhajan but if in India you are picking three best spinners in the country, Harbhajan Singh’s got to figure in that list. Harbhajan is one bowler who should be playing all three formats of the game,” Ganguly said during the launch of ESPN Star Sports’ event to announce their grand plans of covering the World T20 Championship in Sri Lanka.
“I still believe one year was a bit too long time to keep Harbhajan out of the Indian team. The board should have spoken to him and told him that ‘look we are giving you six months time to sort out your bowling’.”
“You can’t keep a bowler like him in domestic cricket for too long. If you have played for the country for 12 years, you are bound to have one bad season. But he has got close to 700 international wickets which is no mean feat,” said the man who has handled Harbhajan the best among all Indian captains.
Ganguly felt that the Indian team does have a good chance of doing well in the World T20 Championship as they have players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli, who can all clear the boundary at will.
“We have seen in IPL also that we have some of the cleanest hitters in the game. The ability to consistently clear the boundaries will be a factor.
“Also they will be playing in familiar sub-continental conditions. In the last two World T20 Championships, the short ball was a factor as it was flying above the head. But, even if a bowler digs in short, it will at the most come at waist height which is comfortable for Indian batsmen.”
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