We didn't gain anything playing Sri Lanka: Harbhajan Singh

With India conceding the Test series to South Africa, the players and management are facing serious criticism. It was believed that this is India’s best chance to win a Test series in South Africa. The Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar opined that there was never such good balance in the side as this Indian team. India always struggled overseas with their bowlers not good enough to pick 20 wickets at the desired time.

But this time around, the case is completely different. The Indian bowlers picked the 20 wickets in both the matches and did exceedingly well. However, they didn’t find any support from the batsmen. Before the series, many backed the team to do well in the rainbow nation. But that hasn’t been the case as India failed to reach the expectations.

We didn’t gain anything playing Sri Lanka

After Bishan Singh Bedi, this time it is the turn of Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh to mock the Sri Lanka tour. He felt that playing Sri Lanka served very little purpose before the gruelling tour of South Africa. India is now staring at whitewash against the Proteas. Questions have been raised about India’s preparation for the tour and Harbhajan gave his perspective.

“Look I believe the last Sri Lanka series at home served little purpose. We hardly gained anything out of it. Rather a few players could have gone to South Africa early. If not, Dharamsala could have been a great place for preparation,” Harbhajan said to SportStar. Also, “Its high altitude, cooler weather, seam movement along with bounce would have given them ideal preparation before a tough assignment like South Africa,” he added justifying his statement.

He also felt that Ajinkya Rahane‘s omission was a 50-50 call. He urged the fans to think from the captain’s point of view. Talking about Rahane’s omission, he said “What if Ajinkya played and India was down 0-2, then would we have said that please bring Rohit. One needs to understand the captain’s point of view also”.

He opined Bhuvneshwar’s omission was a blunder but backed the team to do well in Johannesburg. “Bhuvi is a bigger match-winner in today’s date compared to Ishant Sharma. Whenever Bhuvi has performed, India has done well. I still believe all is not lost. We can bounce back and make it 2-1 in Johannesburg,” he observed.