Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was certainly one of the best spinners to play the game of cricket. Apart from bowling, Singh was great with the bat as well, and he scored 2 centuries and 9 half-centuries in Test cricket. Known as the ‘Turbantor’, Singh loved playing against Australia.
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The Australian team was certainly the best team of that time, but the off-spinner always enjoyed bowling against them. Australian batter Ricky Ponting was one of the best batters around, but Singh used to dismiss him for fun. Singh dismissed Ponting a total of 10 times in Tests (more than anyone else in the world).
ALSO READ: When Shoaib Akhtar was looking for Harbhajan Singh for a fight
Singh’s hat trick against Australia is still fresh in everyone’s mind, where he dismissed Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne in consecutive balls. He was even involved in the infamous ‘Monkey Gate’ scandal with the late Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds.
Harbhajan Singh revealed how Shane Warne burst out laughing over his sledge towards Darren Lehmann
Harbhajan Singh once revealed how his sledging towards Australian batter Darren Lehmann made Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne laugh on the field. Singh revealed that once he was batting, Lehmann was continuously sledging at him, so he tried to give it back by asking ‘Are you pregnant?’ because of his belly fat.
Singh insists that the Australian players were not used to taking the sledge back as they used to consider themselves the biggest superstars of cricket. The Indian off-spinner said that being a Punjabi, he always used to speak his heart out.
“I was batting and (Darren) Lehmann was continuously sledging me. He had a huge stomach and his slack string used to hang out like Shakti Kapoor’s. I was so much perturbed over his sledging that I pointed towards his abdomen and asked: ‘Are you pregnant?’Lehmann told this to Shane Warne who burst out laughing. Warne asked me whether I said this…’ Well, players shouldn’t have such huge stomachs,” Harbhajan was quoted as saying in ‘Aap ki Adalat’ programme.
Shane Warne passed away earlier last year, and he was one of the greatest players to ever play the match. The leg-spinner was the first bowler in history to scalp 700 Test wickets, and he is still the 2nd highest wicket-taker in the history of Test cricket.
