As team India was doing their decimation act in Sri Lanka with precision, the man missing from the squad, one who is key to India?s chances in the upcoming series against New Zealand and also the T-20 world cup in England, Harbhajan Singh, met up for a freewheeling chat in Mumbai. Nursing a hip injury, Bhajji was forced to sit out the Sri Lanka series and has just resumed practice. The Bhajji I met in Mumbai was a fundamentally different Bhajji from the one I had first met and interacted with when he had single handedly decimated Steve Waugh?s Australians in India in 2001. It was this series that earned him the tag of ?turbanator? and made him a mythic hero in Indian cricket, one who had made Ricky Ponting his bunny. After India had scripted history in Kolkata and had beaten Australia ? thanks to the Laxman-Dravid classic and Harbhajan?s guile, he had in an interview mentioned in absolute delight, coupled with relief, that his new found fame would allow him to get his sisters married off. As the only son in the family, it was his responsibility. He was then an insecure youth trying to cling on to new found fame and make the most of it till it lasted.
While the responsibility bit remains and impressed me much, I was delighted to see the confidence and poise he has been able to cultivate over the years himself. It finally seemed to me that Harbhajan Singh has come to terms with fame. In saying that his slapping of Sreesanth was a serious offence, which he wants to forget and move on, it was a mature Harbhajan Singh who was speaking to me. Words like ?role model?, ?senior player?, ?fighter?, etc were coming out of his mouth with amazing regularity and I could sense what makes this Indian team different. If Harbhajan is the classic example of this new age Indian side, there?s little doubt that India is in for a fairytale journey in international cricket in the coming months. The sense of purpose that is now instilled in the side, the deep desire to keep winning, to push themselves that extra yard is what makes this Indian side different. When he asserted that India was silently confident of doing well against New Zealand in New Zealand, I found no reason to not take him seriously. It wasn?t a brash assertion of a reckless youngster.
Rather, it was a senior pro speaking his heart knowing full well that his team has the ability to aspire to cricket?s highest honours. For this Indian side, full of players like Harbhajan with an atatitude that is so different from the Indian teams of the past, nothing, literally, is impossible.
In pointing out the stark contrast between the Chappell era and the current regime, Bhajji drove his point home. ?Everything then was out in the media the very next day,? he said with a sense of frustration. ?You don?t see anything come out these days. We are a happy lot.? This sense of happiness and purpose, deeply integrated within the Indian team is the root cause of the transformation from being a talented bunch to being the number one side in the world. While Saurav Ganguly had initiated this process of transformation, the wheel has come full circle with Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Pressure under Dhoni translates into a smile in the middle and as an opposition you know you are up against a team that has the ability to absorb pressure ? an attribute that modern competitive sport so badly needs.
Months earlier, a 4-1 series win in Sri Lanka looked impossible. Not anymore.To go back to the cardinal CLR James maxim, ?What do they know of cricket that only cricket know??
The writer is a cricket historian