Harbhajan Singh’s exclusion stuns Michael Clarke

Mumbai Indians went head to head with Rising Pune Supergiant in a Maharashtra derby game at the Wankhede Stadium. This is the first Qualifier of the playoffs and the winner will progress to the final while the loser will take on the winner of the Eliminator 1 clash between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders to be held on Wednesday.

Mumbai Indians have chased well this year and it was no surprise that they elected to field first after winning the toss. When Rohit announced his team at the toss, many fans were left stunned. Mumbai opted for Karn Sharma instead of the experienced Harbhajan Singh, who took a pounding in the last game he played against Kings XI Punjab.

Michael Clarke was equally stunned as he took to Twitter to convey how baffled he was with the star bowler’s omission for this all-important game. Clarke hoped that ‘Bhajji’ was injured because that should be the only reason for a player of his class and experience to miss out on this encounter.

Bhajji misses second game against RPS

Incidentally, Harbhajan missed out Mumbai’s away game against Pune in early April. The game was eventually won by Smith’s men by 7 wickets. Mumbai chose to not select Harbhajan for that encounter, which was the first game of the season for the team.

Harbhajan may have picked just 8 wickets from 11 games this year but he has been very miser as he has an economy rate of 6.48. The off-spinner, apart from the Punjab game where he conceded 45 runs in 3 overs, hasn’t conceded more than 27 runs in any of the games he has played this year. He has slowed up the pace and bowled a good length to keep the big-hitters at bay. His best performance came against Daredevils in an away game as Harbhajan returned with 3/22.