SA v IND 2018: Harbhajan Singh wanted players to reach South Africa early, instead of playing in Lanka series

Harbhajan Singh said, “Look I believe the last Sri Lanka series at home served little purpose.

Harbhajan Singh said that playing SL before SA series served no purpose

Team India had played a full series against Sri Lanka comprising of 3 Tests, 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is before the all important tour of South Africa. Now that they have lost the Test series against South Africa, questions are been raised on the purpose of the Lanka series.

Senior spinner Harbhajan Singh also shared his views and said that India should have sent some players to South Africa early, instead of them playing in the Lanka series.

He said in an interview to PTI, “Look I believe the last Sri Lanka series at home served little purpose. We hardly gained anything out of it. Rather a few players could have gone to South Africa early. If not Dharamsala could have been a great place for preparation.

"Its high altitude, cooler weather, seam movement along with bounce would have given them ideal preparation before a tough assignment like South Africa," Harbhajan continued.

Harbhajan also said that Rahane’s inclusion was no guarantee that things would have turned out differently for Team India.

"I was checking a few stats. Under Virat, Ajinkya's average is less than 40 over 30 Tests. Also last one year he didn't score that many runs. What if Ajinkya played and India were down 0-2, then would we have said that please bring Rohit. One needs to understand the captain's point of view also," the 'Turbanator' opined.

However, Harbhajan said that Bhuvneshwar Kumar must have played in the second Test.

"Bhuvi is a bigger match-winner in today's date compared to Ishant Sharma. Whenever Bhuvi has performed, India have done well. I still believe all is not lost. We can bounce back and make it 2-1 in Johannesburg," he observed.

"My advice to the team would be to remain positive. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. So we should go for it," he concluded.

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 21 Jan, 2018

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