Harbhajan slammed India for making spin-friendly pitches that suited Kiwi spinners more.
Former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh reacted to India’s 0-3 Test series whitewash against New Zealand after the visitors handed the hosts a 25-run defeat in the 3rd and final Test in Mumbai on November 3.
India failed to show any fight in their chase of 147 runs, with only Rishabh Pant with 64 taking the attack to New Zealand spinners. India folded for 121 runs as Ajaz Patel added 6 wickets to his first innings haul of 5 scalps, for 11 wickets in the match.
However, Harbhajan Singh thoroughly slammed Indian team management for tinkering too much with the pitches, making them spin-friendly and then succumbing to New Zealand spinners.
"This entire series has been quite disappointing for all of us. When New Zealand came here, the expectation was that the result would be 3-0 and India would win the series. I can only say that they outplayed us and they took advantage of those conditions," he told ANI.
Harbhajan also opened up on the importance of accountability, saying, “Captain definitely has responsibility and at the same time, the team is also as responsible as the captain.”
He stated that while India intended to produce spin-friendly conditions to test New Zealand, the strategy failed as the pitch conditions favored New Zealand's bowling attack, notably left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel.
"The conditions here were offering a lot of turn—Gaddha khoda toh tha lekin gir khud gaaye (we dug a pit for others, but we ended up falling into it ourselves)," he quipped.
Harbhajan stressed making a balanced pitch saying: "Test cricket means that a match should ideally go on for five days and the better team should emerge victorious. I think the conditions should not be tampered with too much. If you want to play good cricket, then you have to play on a good wicket."
Had India played on standard pitches that aided batters as well, Harbhajan Singh opined that India would’ve won the series 2-0 or 2-1.