Harbhajan Singh congratulates Mayank Markande for maiden India call-up

The last few months have been nothing less than a fairytale for leg-spinner Mayank Markande. The leg-spinner was pretty much an unknown entity in the cricketing circles before Mumbai Indians decided to unleash him in last year’s Indian Premier League and the youngster has not looked back since then. He marked his arrival in style by blowing away Chennai Super Kings in his very first game.

On his debut, he dismissed the likes of MS Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu, finishing the game with four wickets to showcase his skill. He went on to finish the season with 15 wickets, impressing one and all with his varieties. It soon earned him a place in the India A team and the leggie has impressed since then. The 21-year-old Markande has been in impressive form in the past few months and got rewarded for his performances with a maiden international call up.

Markande made it to the Indian T20I side which will face Australia in the two-match series from February 24.  Following the news, veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh congratulated the youngster as well as his childhood coach.

The legendary spinner took to Twitter to wish luck to Markande, writing: “Heartiest Congratulations to Mayank Markande & his childhood Coach Maheshinder Sodhi Sir for his kid reaching the India Cap..Well Done Maheshinder Sir & Best Wishes Mayank as Always.”

Here is Harbhajan’s tweet

Markande as backup:

While there is absolutely no doubting the talent possessed by Markande, many feel that his selection in the national team came a bit early. However, chief selector MSK Prasad, while citing Markande’s five-wicket haul against England Lions in the unofficial Test, said that the spinner has been groomed with India A and will now be prepared as a backup spinner.

“We are looking at Markande as a backup spinner. We have been grooming him though India A process and today also he picked up a five-wicket haul. So, we want to look at him and he’ll be a backup spinner,” MSK Prasad said after announcing the teams on Friday.

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