Harbhajan Singh has included his India teammates Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar in his Test XI.
Former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was on the popular ESPNCricInfo online magazine called ‘The Cricket Monthly' and was asked to pick the best 11 Test players he has played with or against. The 39-year-old has picked Tendulkar, Dravid, and Sehwag in his batting line-up and are also the only three Indians in his squad.
Harbhajan said, “(Virender Sehwag) was someone you could compare with Viv Richards. He wasn't afraid to take anyone on, and he would score at a pace where he would set the match up for the bowlers. I played a lot of cricket with and against him from the Under-19 days when he was a middle-order player, and maybe that's why he was really good against spin, using his feet, sweeping, reverse-sweeping. He was very hard to bowl to. He could rip you apart. If you didn't get him out early, you would be in for a long day.”
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He has picked Sehwag as an opening partner to the strongly built Australian opener Matthew Hayden, who scored a lot of runs dominating the bowlers.
About Tendulkar, he said, “Sachin was obviously Sachin. The most correct batsman I've ever bowled to. I played for the Rest of India v Mumbai in the Irani Trophy a couple of times and he always got runs. To get him out was always a difficult task, like a puzzle. You have to bowl double the number of good balls that you would bowl to a normal batsman to get him out.”
He also praised Dravid saying that he was the most dependable batsman that he has played against or bowled to. Apart from the top four, he picked the Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara as his wicket-keeper and Australian Ricky Ponting as the captain. He mentioned that Ponting was made the skipper because ‘he was a leader’.
He also had two all-rounders in his side, both from South Africa, Jacques Kallis, and Shaun Pollock. He picked two more fast bowlers and a specialist spinner in his side. They were Wasim Akram, Glenn McGrath, and Shane Warne.
Harbhajan Singh’s Test XI:
Virender Sehwag, Matthew Hayden, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting (C), Kumar Sangakkara (WK), Shaun Pollock, Shane Warne, Wasim Akram, Glenn McGrath.
(With inputs from ESPNCricInfo)
