Harbhajan Singh - His best could still lie ahead

On the eve of the Test series against Australia last month, there was trepidation on one front from the Indian angle - the bowling. It was taken for granted that the batting was strong enough to successfully combat McGrath, Warne and company. But there were genuine fears that in the absence of Anil Kumble, the country's leading strike bowler in the last decade, the available bowlers would have a trying time against the formidable Australian batting line-up. Where do we have the bowlers to restrict the Australians, let alone bowl them out, was the worried refrain.

The selectors, probably agreeing with this view, spread the net far and wide. They called seven spin bowlers to the conditioning camp at Chennai and then summoned two more. But generally the nine bowlers inspired little confidence and the doubts remained even as the series commenced in Mumbai. The ten wicket thrashing in three days did little to think of better days as far as the bowling was concerned though admittedly by this stage, the batting too was enough cause for worry. To compound the misery, Javagal Srinath was injured and was ruled out for the second Test to begin with and ultimately as it turned out, for the rest of the series.

About the only saving grace of the Mumbai defeat was the bowling of Harbhajan Singh. The 20-year-old off spinner took four wickets and gave some indication that he would cause the fleet footed Aussie batsmen a bit of bother. But then where was the support at the other end, especially in the absence of Srinath? Harbhajan Singh would have to bowl from both ends and take almost all the wickets if India were to have a chance. And this of course seemed quite far fetched.

And yet by Thursday, the last day of the three Test series, `Bajju' as he was by now being affectionately called, did precisely that. Out of the 39 wickets credited to Indian bowlers in the last two Tests, Harbhajan bagged 28 - almost 72 percent. Only Jim Laker has a better percentage. In two successive Tests against Australia in 1956, the legendary England off spinner took 30 out of 40 wickets to fall - or 75 percent. In the entire series, Harbhajan had 32 wickets while nine others shared 17. The best bags were Zaheer Khan and Sachin Tendulkar with three each. All this is of course quite incredible and certainly it is the kind of dominance by one bowler in a series that has never happened in 124 years of Test cricket.

Given the vulnerability of the Aussie batsman to off break bowling, it was on the cards that Harbhajan would enjoy some success. Also going for him was his aggressive approach. Really, he is the spin bowler with the fast bowler's attitude. And that is just the kind of outlook that one needs in combating the Aussies. But certainly no one would have expected the off spinner to enjoy the kind of success he has had in this series. A bagful of wickets, chief architect of the twin Indian triumphs, man of the match award, man of the series award. Oh yes, it's been a heady triumph for the Jalandhar born sardar.

Is Harbhajan really as good as his series figures would indicate? Clearly the answer has to be `no.' It's true that he bowled to some of the world's best players of spin bowling and succeeded. It's also true that he bowled really well, maintaining the right line and length, always had the batsmen guessing and was prepared to buy his wickets in the manner of the classical off spinner. But then in this particular case, one is talking about figures that are the third best in Test cricket for a three Test series (only England's George Lohmann with 35 against South Africa in 1895-96 and New Zealand's Richard Hadlee with 33 against Australia in 1985-86 have bettered his figures). One would naturally associate such dream statistics in terms of mesmeric bowling. Clearly, Harbhajan's bowling in the series has been somewhat short of the ethereal quality.

But of course Harbhajan is still young. His best years are clearly ahead of him. His stupendous deeds in the just concluded series have seen him leap to 53 wickets from eleven Tests. He can only improve and that is the most heartening news for the Indian team. In the last decade, Anil Kumble has been the lone world class spin bowler in the attack. Soon, he will not have to trundle on his own. When he returns, Harbhajan will be around to join him in the teasing and tormenting trade. He will no doubt do much more than just take a load off Kumble's shoulders. There is little doubt that after a long time, India have finally unearthed an off spinner who has it in him to follow in the footsteps of three illustrious predecessors - Ghulam Ahmed, Prasanna and Venkatraghavan.