The duo of Sourav Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh made history when it comes to Indian Test annals, as both of them led the Indian team to perhaps their greatest Test series win over a rampant Australian team in 2001. The Australians had come to India 18 years ago riding on a streak of 15 Test wins, which they made 16 after winning in Mumbai.
And then came the historic Kolkata Test match which India won despite being asked to follow-on, thanks to the heroics of VVS Laxman, who made 281 and Rahul Dravid, who made 180 and batted the whole day on day four of the match. However, the other hero was off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who picked 13 wickets in the match, including India’s first Test hat-trick.
Sourav Ganguly talks about the incident when he broke security rules for kebabs in Pakistan
Talking about his first impressions of Harbhajan, who was the sole spinner in the series after Anil Kumble was ruled out with a shoulder injury, Ganguly said, he felt the Turbanator was destined for big things in future. Harbhajan had made his Test debut in 1998 at the age of 17 years.
"They say it's love at first sight. And when I saw Harbhajan bowl at Eden, picking up 14 wickets it was love at first sight for a cricketer who I believed would go on to change things for Indian cricket. And 800 (711) wickets after that, I am not surprised. He and Anil were the two best spinners India has ever had together in terms of the no of wickets and the impact that they have had on Test matches,” Sourav Ganguly said at the 'India Today Inspiration' show.
Ganguly further said, "And when the young boys came in, I had some belief. I believed in match-winners, I believed in flamboyance players who are fearless. That's the only you can win matches. I never played for a draw. It's either you lose or you win. There is nothing in between. I think that helped the team."
Ganguly talked about Harbhajan taking on the responsibility in absence of Kumble and Srinath, both out injured. "It was a new team with no Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath two of the best bowlers of that time in Indian cricket. Harbhajan Singh was a new commodity. I played 3 different spinners in 3 different Test matches. 1st one was Rahul Sanghvi, 2nd was Venkatapathy Raju, 3rd one was Neelesh Kulkarni. And my only wicket-taker was Harbhajan Singh because Anil Kumble was injured," Ganguly said.
"Anil Kumble not playing in India is a huge, huge difference to any team. We worked hard before the Test series. John Wright was very important to us. And Harbhajan Singh bowled like a champion," he added.
(India Today inputs)
