Harbhajan Singh Accuses BCCI of Destroying Careers: Former Indian spin sensation Harbhajan Singh slammed India for preparing pitches that excessively support spin and destroying a lot of cricket careers. Harbhajan was talking to PTI in a recent interview.
India had a terrible 2 losses in the first and second Test matches against New Zealand. While the loss in the first Test was by 8 wickets, the second loss, which again came in the second Test itself, was by 113 runs. These losses cost India the series, a record first time in 12 years at home.
Harbhajan Singh Accuses BCCI of Destroying Careers
Harbhajan Singh blames it on the pitch preparation and the team selection. According to him, preparing rank-turners on the home pitches has eventually backfired. He also pointed to the struggle of Indian batters to score runs. He exemplified Ajinkya Rahane as a player who had setbacks in his career due to the heavy turners.
“The pitch in Pune was tailor-made for spinners. If you lose a series after 12 years, people will ask questions,” he said to PTI.
“We are playing on rank-turners for several years. We think that toss will go in our favor, and then we will put 300 runs on the board and control the game. We don’t have batters to score runs on these pitches, and they have lost the confidence. Ajinkya Rahane is a fine player, but his career took a hit because of these kinds of tracks,” he added.
According to Harbhajan Singh, the unpredictability of the heavy turning pitches has caused the confidence-reduction among the Indian batters. He also pointed at Virat Kohli’s struggle to play on home soil but performs well on foreign pitches that support pacers.
He elaborated on how batters lose confidence: “We have this habit of saying that overseas teams also prepare pitches according to their needs, but those are not surfaces where you can’t even bat. Those tracks change over time and not from day one. In India, if the batter doesn’t know which ball will turn and which one will go straight, he is going to face problems. Virat has fared well outside India.
The failure on the home soil could affect the players negatively when they travel overseas, according to Harbhajan.
“You have had a few bad games at home, but the selectors take you for overseas series thinking that you are a good player, but having failed in home games plays on your mind, and you fail in overseas matches, and then you are out of the team.”
Harbhajan also suggested the inclusion of players like Washington Sunder, Axar Patel, and Varun Chakravathy instead of R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
“If you prepare rank turners, you don’t need spinners who can turn the ball—all you need to play accurate bowlers like Washy (Washington Sundar) and Axar (Patel). There is no need to play Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja on such pitches.
“Even Joe Root took five wickets some years back in India. Add Varun Chakravarthy to the playing XI, he will take wickets.”
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