Harbhajan Singh

Full name: Harbhajan Singh
Nicknames: Bhajji, Turbanator
Born: July 3, 1980, Jullundur (now Jalandhar), Punjab
Major teams: India, Punjab, Reebok XI, Surrey

Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak

Test debut: India v Australia at Bangalore - Mar 25-28, 1998

ODI debut: India v New Zealand at Sharjah - Apr 17, 1998

Twenty20 debut: South Africa v India at Johannesburg - Dec 1, 2006

PROFILE
Harbhajan Singh is the only son of businessman Sardar Sardev Singh who owned a ball bearing and valve factory. Bhajji was to take up the family business but he showed interest in sports and specially in cricket. So his father encouraged him to take up cricket as career and reach the national team. Harbhajan was initially trained as a batsman by his first coach, but due to the coach's early demise he took up offspin bowling. Sheer hard work and sweating helped him master spin bowling and become India's most successful offspinner of all times.

Harbhajan made his first class debut in 1997 at the age of 17. Though his performances in the few first class matches he played was just a modest one, he was selected for the national team, ahead of many other better performers. He made his test debut against Australia where he recorded modest figures of 2/136. He was dropped for the ODI series that followed but was selected for ODI series in Sharjah, where he made his ODI debut against New Zealand.

After failing to make a mark in both the ODI and test arena, Harbhajan was regularly dropped from the team. Also Anil Kumble was back in form to head the spin attack. During the two year phase, from 1999 to 2001, Harbhajan Singh remained completely out of international cricket being overlooked as the selectors tried other spinners including Kartik, Sunil Joshi and Sarandeep Singh. The revival for this offspinner came in the Border-Gavaskar trophy held in March, 2001. It was Harbhajan who led the spin attack. He even recorded a hat-trick (Ponting, Gilcrist, Warne) to become the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in Tests. He managed to take a whooping 32 wickets in the series claiming well deserved Man of the Series award and two Man of the Match award.

Harbhajan has not been able to maintain that top class form he showed against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Though he was included in the squad for the next series but was subsequently dropped owing to poor performances. After Greg Chappel took over as the coach he has been mainly out of form. His occasional good performances has helped him maintain his place in the squad. The year 2006-07 has seen a drought of wickets for Harbhajan as he failed to quantify on given opportunities. Even then he has been able to make it to the Indian squad for world cup 2007 at the expense of Ramesh Power owing to his previous form.

Hurbhajan has been in news all through his career for one or the other reason. He was reprimanded and fined by the ICC referee in his very first international series as his on-field behaviour was adjudged as breach of ICC code of Conduct. In 2000, when Harbhajan remained out of the team, was expelled on disciplinary grounds by director Hanumant Singh during a training Camp at the National Cricket Academy. In 2002 he sustained minor injuries after he broke into a scuffle with the police personels in Guwahati. Ironically he had been offered the post of an honorary Deputy Superintendent of Punjab Police by the Govt. of Punjab some weeks before. After that he again came into news when he commented on Greg Chappel's tactics. This time he was called by the Punjab Cricket Academy for giving explanations but was not punished after he gave a apology. The most recent case-Harbhajan's appearing in an Royal Stag commercial without a turban created a lot of anger among the orthodox Sikhs.

Bhajji is an aggressive player. He has the rare capability to ball the 'doosra' which is one of the deadliest ball to understand and play. Besides spinning the ball, he can put some quick runs on the board with some huge sixes and lofty fours. He also has to his name 2 fifties while in ODI, he has plenty of 30+ scores.
Veiw Harbhajan's stats athttp://content-usa.cricinfo.com/india/content/player/29264.html