Harbhajan Singh confident about India's success in the T20 World Cup
Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is confident that India can overturn its recent run of poor form and embark on a winning streak, Indian Express reports. The veteran cricketer also opined that India should rely on its strength in the spin department to do well in the 2016 T20 World Cup to be staged in India.
India lost the opening match at Dharamsala by seven wickets before going on to lose the series at Cuttack in a match where the hosts were bundled out for just 92 runs. Though disappointed by the setbacks, Harbhajan is confident that India will comeback in the final T20 to be played on Thursday.
“We have lost the series, but we still have a lot to play in the final game. Hopefully we will win and from there onward it could be a different story,” Harbhajan told reporters on the eve of the match. “The ODIs are coming up and then the Tests. We want to play our best game and we want to put up our best show. Once we start winning, we will be a difficult side to beat.”
Harbhajan recalled the recent Test series in Sri Lanka which India went on to win 2-1 despite losing the first Test as an example of India’s fighting spirit.
“It was because of the belief that we had. Every game is a challenge for us from here on. Yes we have lost the series and we didn’t play as well as we should have but Eden is always a very special ground for all of us. “Obviously winning here will mean a lot to us. We will go out there and give it our best shot. If we win here, we will take that confidence into the ODI series,” he said.
Harbhajan fully backs the decision of the team management
Following the loss in the T20 series opener despite posting a healthy total of 199, Harbhajan was drafted into the side in place of Sreenath Aravind who debuted at Dharamsala. The off-spinner said that he fully understands the decisions taken by the team management and feels Ajinkya Rahane’s inclusion in the side is also something the Indian think-tank will be deliberating upon.
“Rahane is a quality player and there is no doubt about it. All depends on the team management as to what they feel will be the best team combination to win the game and going forward. Let’s see what they decide but as I said Rahane is a quality player; that is all I can say. I don’t know if there will be a change or not because I am not part of the decision making. One thing I can assure is, every player in the playing eleven will go for one motive and that is to win the game for India,” he said.
Reflecting further on the four run outs that India have fallen prey to in the two matches, Harbhajan conceded that they had been taking risks regarding running between the wickets but insisted that it is the brand of positive cricket that the Indian team would like to continue with.
“The last game was not a perfect game for us. We lost two wickets to run-outs and they (South Africa) fielded brilliantly. We took our chances against their fielders, but it didn’t go our way,” Harbhajan said. “In this format you have to push the fielders and obviously we have got some quick runners between the wickets. We have the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni himself who are all brilliant runners between the wickets. In Dharamsala it was a different story; we had two runs for the taking most of the times. We wanted to challenge their fielders and that is what you call playing positive cricket.”
Harbhajan looking forward to T20 World Cup
The losses in the T20 matches has raised concerns about how India will perform at the T20 World Cup, which is less than six months away, but Harbhajan is not reading too much into the results and urged the team management not to make radical changes to the team setup.
“I don’t think we need to worry too much about the losses in our last two games. We are hurt by those losses but going forward and talking about the World Twenty20,” he said. “I think it is important to back the players who are probably the best players for the format. This has been the quality of this team; they have stuck to the players who they believe can win the game. That is what we need to do as a team. We need to reunite ourselves and give our best performance.”
The 35-year-old is in doubt that India should stick to spin as their primary weapon with the tournament set to be played in their home territory.
“Spin has been India’s strength and obviously we will be playing the competition in India and lot of the tracks will be supporting the slower bowlers,” Harbhajan said. “If you see the records in the IPL and other sort of T20 tournaments we have played, mostly spinners are the ones who take a lot of wickets and control the runs in the middle. T20 is all about taking wickets rather than just restricting the batsmen. I think spinners have a major role to play if India has to win the World T20. We have got four spinners in the team and all four have done well when they have got the opportunity. I am sure it is going to be a very exciting time to look forward to.”