I do not doubt his selection to Australia at all. But I do agree Harbhajan has performed below in the last 2 years. Of all the matches he played, I would note one especially -- The recently held first test match against NZ, I think India could have won the match if Harbhajan had bowled a little better and with a little bit of cool head. In the first innings, he bowled middle-leg most of the time, which the NZ were only to happy to play as all his balls were turning away towards leg and he virtually had no chance of getting any LBW. In the second innings, Kumble bowled beautifully in the morning and only if Harbhajan had supported by just bowling tight the match could have been ours.
Also I think Harbhajan has forgotten how to bat or to use his head while batting. When was the last time, he batted sensibly. Since he comes ahead of Zaheer, agarkar or Kumble, he needs to set an example of putting his head down and playing support for the established batsmen, when the scenario demands rather than trying to blast away with heroic shots.
This is an interesting statistics and analysis. Here is one for the writer and the readers. Sunil Gavaskar made is debut in 1970-71 against Westindies scoring 774 runs in 4 matches at an average of 154.80 with 4 centuries and 3 50s. His stats for the next 4 years: 1971 vs England 3M 144Runs avg 24.00, 1972/73 vs England 5M, 224 runs avg 24.88, 1974 vs England 3M, 217 Runs, avg 36.16,1974/75 vs WI 2M, 108 runs, average 27.00. Looking at these performances and by doing an analysis that is done in case of 'Bajji' the writer might have suggested in 1975 that Gavaskar was not good enough for the team. End of the carreer for the most successful opener for India!!!
Harbhajan is not the best Spinner unlike Muralitharan who can spin on any track. For him the pitch should assist then only he can get wickets. In my view he is over rated.
Enough is enough. High time to disolve all selection panels and replace them with a transparent performance based selection norms which would give appropriate weightage to a players performance in the past (batting, bowling, fielding, no. of catches held/dropped etc.). This way non-performing players will automatically give way to performing ones. As the biased (and sometimes corrupt) selectors are unlikely to give up their position , now it is up to the paying public to keep pressing for a drastic change.
In my humble opinion,I cannot see Harbhajan working magic in Austraila.Although much is expected of him , the points that go against him are...
1.He is at present not at the top of his game. 2.The pitches are certainly not going to help. 3.He has no previous experience of playing in Australia.
If the first tour match (against Victoria) is any indication, Harbhajan will be targeted and will be 'psyched' out by these explosive Aussie batting line up.
It is a pity,he is a fantastic bowler, but the trouble is he is no where near his best.
His test averages show that he has had only 2 bad overseas tours since then - SA and SL. I am not sure what author is trying to say. I am not sure if the author is sure.
