Sunday, March 13, 2011

Drop Harbhajan And Win The World Cup

It is pity that the cricket experts often do not pick up the finer nuances of the game. There is nothing special about Harbhajan Singh's bowling. I have never seen Harbhajan Singh turn a game by himself. What Harbhajan's does at his best is pick wickets when the opposition is under immense pressure. His performance against Australia in 2001 is more due to incompetence of Australian batsmen at playing slow bowling than Harbhajan's expertise with the ball. Sachin Tendulkar has bagged five wicket hauls against an almost similar Australian team in One Dayers. Who knows if Sachin had bowled as many over as Harbhajan did, Sachin would have picked more wickets than Harbhajan. I could not agree more with Bishan Singh Bedi when he claimed that Sehwag is the best spin bowler in the Indian team. Did Harbhajan ever turned a ball like a Shane Warne or a Muralitharan.

I have seen Harbhajan struggled badly in the last three to four years as I have been watching cricket ever more than I did before. This Indian team has many specialist batsmen who are better spin bowlers than Harbhajan. If Yuvraj and Sehwag are used as much as Harbhajan, they would produce more results than Harbhajan. In the presence of that many permanent Indian batsmen who are so good at turning their arm around, India needs only specialist spinner.

The only task ahead of everyone who matter is to identify the best spinner in the India. At this time I think Ashwin is the best Indian spinner. In fact I always thought that Murali Karthik was a more potent spinner than Harbhajan even though he is a leg spinner. I do not know what keeps Harbhajan going in the Indian team. Dhoni never seems to show concern about Harbhajan's indifferent form.

In fact I would rate Harbhajan's batting skills above his bowling skills. I think it is a high time that Harbhajan makes the way for a more talented spin bowler in the Indian team. How now and then come with good bowling performance and retain his place till he comes with another one. Most of the times he gets wickets simply because the batsmen are going after him and trying to score runs quickly.

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