Harbhajan Singh has revealed that he did not watch a single ball of the iconic Dravid-Laxman partnership in Kolkata in 2001 because of Sachin Tendulkar.

Australia batted first in the Kolkata Test and scored 445 in their first innings. To everyone’s shock, the Indian side with a strong batting line-up was bundled out for just 171 and was asked to follow-on. The Indians were at a slightly better stage in the second innings but had lost their first 4 wickets with 232 runs on the board.

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After the fall of the fourth wicket, Rahul Dravid joined VVS Laxman in the middle and the duo defied pain, fever and the Australian bowlers to record a mammoth 376-run partnership.

While they were out batting, Sachin Tendulkar had asked the Indian players to not move from their seats to stop the fall of wickets. Due to this, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who became a hero after taking a hat-trick in the second innings, could not watch a single ball in the partnership.

Harbhajan told TOI, “I remember that during that entire partnership, all of us in the dressing room didn’t leave our seats. This was because we were losing wickets rapidly in the second innings too, even though Laxman was there at one end. Once their partnership started developing, we stuck to our seats. It was a decision taken by Sachin Tendulkar.”

The team was convinced after the duo batted out one session and decided to stick to their seats for the rest of the partnership.

“After they batted through a session, we told ourselves: ‘This is the first session in which no wicket has fallen, so let’s stick to the same seats.’ And that remained the pattern even the next day when they batted the whole day! I was sitting in my seat inside the dressing room for that entire day. I didn’t see a single ball,” he added.

(With inputs from TOI)