Harbhajan defends India batsmen, blames pitches

Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh has come out in defence of India batsmen and blamed the poor pitches for their failure.

India lost 3-0 to New Zealand to suffer the first whitewash at home in their cricket history. The pitch at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai helped copious amount of turn while the one at Pune too aided spinners. Mitchell Santner took 13 wickets in the Pune Test.

“Turning pitches becoming ur own enemy #INDvsNZTEST Congratulations NZ you outplayed us. Been saying from many years. Team India needs to play on better pitches. These turning pitches making every batsman look very ordinary,” said Harbhajan in a tweet on X (formerly Twitter) on November 3.

Responding to a comment by comedian Vikram Sathaye who said, “Imagine batters from the earlier generation played Murali, Warne, Saqlain on subcontinent tracks”, Harbhajan said that batsmen from the earlier generations never played on such surfaces.

“Earlier generations batsman’s never played on these kind of tracks. These tracks are prepared for 2/3 day test matches. You Don’t need Murli, Warne or saqi on these pitches to get the teams out. Anyone can get anyone out (sic).”

India’s top batsmen Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma performed poorly in the New Zealand series and also in the previous Test series against Bangladesh which India won 2-0.

Kohli got 192 in 10 innings of the home Tests while Rohit Sharma got 133. These were poor returns for both of them.

Tags : Harbhajan Singh, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, India cricket team, New Zealand, Pitches