Matthew Hayden reckons Harbhajan is more attacking bowler than R Ashwin

Former Australian batsman Matthew Hayden recently spoke at length about the various happenings in the modern day cricket. In a very interesting comparison, Hayden voted in the favor of Harbhajan Singh ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin when it came to picking up an attacking bowler. As per the quotes in NDTV, Matthew Hayden remarked that Ashwin’s recent achievement deserves a lot of credit.

However, he added that Ashwin is certainly not as attacking as Harbhajan Singh is. Explaining his point a little further, Hayden cited that Ashwin probably does not need to be too aggressive. He has some top quality fast bowlers in Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami in the bowling lineup alongside him. But, Harbhajan never had the same privilege of serious fiery bowlers alongside him in the national setup.

“I think stats often lie but having said that, some of the milestones show remarkable respect to Ravichandran Ashwin, who is fastest to 300 wickets in Test cricket. Even if he (Ashwin) plays for another five years, he would be remembered as one of the greats of his generation. His skill-set, like Harbhajan, is masterful but he is probably not as attacking off-spinner as Harbhajan was,” quoted Matthew Hayden.

“But then Ashwin doesn’t really need to be as attacking as Bhajji. His role within this side is well-defined by a slightly better fast bowling attack (as support cast) than what my generation was facing. You line-up Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and put Jasprit Bumrah into the mix with Jadeja as the second spinner as well. So Ashwin is playing his role and doing it successfully,” he elaborated further.

On Harbhajan Singh’s bowling ability

He further showered praise on Harbhajan Singh citing him as a dominant bowler. He noted that Harbhajan did not have the best of the fast bowlers backing him up. Hence, the team often looked up to him to produce wickets and he rarely disappointed. He was the solitary role maker in the Indian team at that moment.

“Harbhajan I thought in his era was ‘the dominant bowler’ especially against Australia so if Bhajji wasn’t taking wickets, India were in trouble. I don’t think Venkatesh Prasad was a wonderful Test match bowler. I think Harbhajan was the lone role maker. With due respect, Zaheer Khan or Javagal Srinath were wonderful bowlers but I think they were less of a threat compared to guys that are there now,” Hayden said.