Is it game over for Bhajji?

Day 1 of the first semifinal of the Ranji 2012/13 season between Saurashtra and Punjab ended today. Going through the bowling figures of Punjab, Harbhajan Singh finished the day with one wicket for 59 runs from the 15 overs he bowled. Out of these, one over was a maiden. He went for just under four runs an over. The only consolation was that he managed to bag the wicket of Saurashtra opener Sitanshu Kotak, who patiently made 54 runs.

When did the form start dipping for Harbhajan Singh? There are changes that we have observed. He bowls defensively to an attacking field. He bowls a leg-stump line, is flatter through the air and the concept of flight has disappeared from his armoury. He spins the ball lesser than he used to, trying to focus more on accuracy. In doing so, he looks like a slow medium bowler – much like what Chris Harris and Gavin Larson were for New Zealand. The only difference was that Harris and Larson bowled a stump-to-stump line, which made them economical, even if they did not take many wickets.

Harbhajan even tried his luck in the English county, Essex in June 2012. There is a story that says that he sent a text message to the sports journalists in India, telling them that he had taken three wickets in as many overs in a T20 game and asked for it to be published. It was also at this time that he had criticized the media on Twitter for “putting a guy down”. “Indian media is nothing but a joke,” he had Tweeted at the time.

Unfortunately, things didn’t get better. He was dropped for the home series against West Indies and the tour of Australia in late 2011. When he did play the home series against England, MS Dhoni preferred to hand the ball over to either R Ashwin or Pragyan Ojha. Harbhajan bowled 21 overs in the first innings of the Mumbai Test – the only one he played – and took 2/74. The wickets were of James Anderson and Stuart Broad. In comparison, Ashwin bowled double the number of overs he bowled, while Ojha bowled 40. After the series, Harbhajan continued playing domestic cricket. He has had a poor season, taking just 10 wickets in four Ranji games.

Currently, India is in a spin dilemma. R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha have had moderate success at home, but Ashwin has been disappointing outside India, while Ojha is yet to be given a chance outside the sub-continent. Piyush Chawla, Rahul Sharma, and Amit Mishra have had their chances, but have not capitalized on them. As Aakash Chopra so rightly put, India’s spin department is in a lot of trouble.

A long time ago, Bishan Singh Bedi gave a very simple piece of advice to the students of spin bowling – spin the ball as much as you can. It does not matter if they go haywire in the beginning, but the more you spin the ball over a period of time, more you will learn to control it and that is when you get effective, he had said.

As ironical as it is, Muttiah Murlitharan, who Bedi hates, mastered the art of bowling in this very way. The same can be said about current bowlers such as Saeed Ajmal. Will Harbhajan get his zing back? Hopefully, if he follows Bedi’s advice.