Ahead of the second Test against Australia, former India spinner Harbhajan Singh recollected his memories of playing against Aussies and said the battle between the teams forced them to put in extra effort on the field. After the Ashes rivalry in red-ball cricket, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has gained much popularity among cricket fanatics with India not losing the series since 2016. “It was our job. We were playing to win against Australia. You get to know how good of a player you are when you play against a bigger team like Australia, and Australia was a very good team. They were the number one team. If you want to know your capabilities, you have to play against the best. That’s what we did. We tried. We tried and stayed determined. Whenever we played against Australia, we had to put in some extra effort. Because they were a very good team,” Harbhajan said on Star Sports’ “Time-out”.
The veteran spinner, who has played many Test series against Australia, was one of the many players to add fuel to the rivalry when he became the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in red-ball cricket and that too against Australia at Eden Gardens in 2001. He dismissed Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, and Shane Warne on successive deliveries to etch his name in the history.
When asked about off-field relations with Australian players and whether any rivalries from on-field encounters linger, Harbhajan said, “No, those memories are confined to the ground. Now, I meet Matthew Hayden as if he is my long lost brother. Because we work in broadcasting, we work for the same production house, we work for Star Sports. So, all those things have mellowed down. Those memories are for the field. In the IPL, when you start sharing the dressing room with each other, you get to know each other better.
“So, I understood that just like us, they also work hard for their team. They work hard to make their country win. In that, everything is fair. Like in love and war, everything is fair. So, when you are on the field, everything is right. But things shouldn’t extend beyond the field. Giving each other those fiery looks should be limited to the field only,” he added.
Indian pacer Ishant Sharma also shared his thoughts on playing against Australia and revealed his mantra of keeping things simple.
“Generally, we used to try to do our best, if you play against a team that is dominant in world cricket, you have to put in some extra effort. When I went there for the first time, I didn’t have any idea. I used to just bowl. We didn’t know much back then. I just focused on doing the simple things,” he said.