'Till I was there, I never felt anything' - Harbhajan Singh on Yuvraj Singh's 'lack of role-models' in team India comment

Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh recently felt that the current Indian team lacks role models. According to him, the youngsters have only Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as the seniors to look up to unlike during his playing days when the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly among many other were in the team. He also took an indirect dig at the youngsters stating that a sense of respect among them for seniors has also decreased.

Harbhajan Singh has now opined on the matter stating that he never felt like that at least until he was playing for India. The off-spinner was the part of the Indian team until 2016 before he went down the pecking order. He last played for India in T20Is in the Asia Cup 2016 against the United Arab Emirates (UAE). However, he is still playing the IPL for the CSK and is yet to retire from the game.

Speaking about Yuvraj’s statement, the 39-year-old stated that the culture is bound to be different in every team and also pointed out that the times have changed now. He also went on to say that he didn’t feel anything like what Yuvi mentioned until he was playing in the team.

“See every team has a different culture. Pehle ke time kuch aur the (times were different before). Now these are different times. What Yuvi has said, I don’t know in what context he said these things, but I played till 2016 and I never felt anything like this,” Harbhajan Singh was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

Team has changed a lot since 2016, says Harbhajan Singh

Moreover, he also also highlighted the fact that the Indian team has changed a lot since he last played. The offie who plays under MS Dhoni in the IPL also preferred to be on the safer side and mentioned that it wouldn’t be write on his part to comment on the current bunch and also suggested to ask Yuvraj the context in which he gave his ‘role-model’ and ‘respect’ statement.

“Now I haven’t been in the team since 2016 so I cannot comment on this current bunch. But till the time I was there, I never felt anything. Yes the team has changed a lot since 2016. So maybe Yuvi can give you a better answer to this as he knows the context,” Harbhajan Singh further said.