KOLKATA: Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is of the opinion that India's house sequence towards Sri Lanka served little goal forward of the gruelling excursion of South Africa.
India have already lost the sequence and are looking at a whitewash towards the Proteas.
Questions had been raised about India's preparation for the excursion and Harbhajan gave his perspective.
"Look I believe the last Sri Lanka series at home served little purpose. We hardly gained anything out of it. Rather a few players could have gone to South Africa early. If not Dharamsala could have been a great place for preparation," Harbhajan stated.
"Its high altitude, cooler weather, seam movement along with bounce would have given them ideal preparation before a tough assignment like South Africa."
There has been a raging debate about Ajinkya Rahane's omission from the primary two Tests but Harbhajan feels that there is not any be sure that issues would had been different had Rahane played.
"I was checking a few stats. Under Virat, Ajinkya's average is not up to 40 over 30 Tests. Also closing 12 months he did not score that many runs.
"What if Ajinkya played and India have been down 0-2, then would we have now stated that please deliver Rohit. One needs to know the captain's point of view also," the 'Turbanator' opined.
However, he feels that whilst Rahane omission was a 50-50 name, Bhuvneshwar Kumar must have played.
"Bhuvi is a bigger match-winner in today's date compared to Ishant Sharma. Whenever Bhuvi has carried out, India have finished neatly. I still believe all is not lost. We can jump back and make it 2-1 in Johannesburg," he observed.
"My advice to the group can be to remain certain. There is not anything to lose and the whole lot to realize. So we must go for it," he concluded.
India have already lost the sequence and are looking at a whitewash towards the Proteas.
Questions had been raised about India's preparation for the excursion and Harbhajan gave his perspective.
"Look I believe the last Sri Lanka series at home served little purpose. We hardly gained anything out of it. Rather a few players could have gone to South Africa early. If not Dharamsala could have been a great place for preparation," Harbhajan stated.
"Its high altitude, cooler weather, seam movement along with bounce would have given them ideal preparation before a tough assignment like South Africa."
There has been a raging debate about Ajinkya Rahane's omission from the primary two Tests but Harbhajan feels that there is not any be sure that issues would had been different had Rahane played.
"I was checking a few stats. Under Virat, Ajinkya's average is not up to 40 over 30 Tests. Also closing 12 months he did not score that many runs.
"What if Ajinkya played and India have been down 0-2, then would we have now stated that please deliver Rohit. One needs to know the captain's point of view also," the 'Turbanator' opined.
However, he feels that whilst Rahane omission was a 50-50 name, Bhuvneshwar Kumar must have played.
"Bhuvi is a bigger match-winner in today's date compared to Ishant Sharma. Whenever Bhuvi has carried out, India have finished neatly. I still believe all is not lost. We can jump back and make it 2-1 in Johannesburg," he observed.
"My advice to the group can be to remain certain. There is not anything to lose and the whole lot to realize. So we must go for it," he concluded.
We didn't gain anything playing Sri Lanka: Harbhajan Singh
![We didn't gain anything playing Sri Lanka: Harbhajan Singh]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
January 21, 2018
Rating:
