Harbhajan Singh (born 3 July 1980) is an Indian politician and former cricketer. He currently serves as a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha. Harbhajan played on the teams that won the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 Cricket World Cup, and 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, along with Sri Lanka.
Harbhajan played for the Indian national cricket team from 1998 to 2016 as an off spin bowler. Domestically, he played for the Punjab cricket team; and in the Indian Premier League for the Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, and Kolkata Knight Riders. He is also a film actor, a television celebrity, and a cricket commentator.
Early life and training Born to a Sikh Ramgarhia family, Harbhajan is the only son of Sardar Sardev Singh Plaha, a freedom fighter who owned a ball bearing and valve factory. He grew up with five sisters.
Harbhajan was trained as a batsman by his first coach, Charanjit Singh Bhullar, but converted to spin bowling after his coach's untimely death saw him under the tutelage of Davinder Arora.
Career Domestic Harbhajan played for Punjab Under-16s at the age of 15 years and 4 months in November of the 1995–96 season, and took 7/46 and 5/138 in his debut, against Haryana, setting up a nine-wicket win. He scored 56 in his next match against Delhi and then took 11/79 in his third match against Himachal Pradesh, orchestrating an innings win. He ended with 32 wickets at 15.15 and 96 runs at 48.00 in four matches. He was rewarded with being selected for North Zone Under-16s, a team that represents all of northern India for a one-day series, in which he took two wickets at 43.50 in four matches and scored 18 runs. At the end of the season, he was called into the national Under-19 team at the age of 15 years and 9 months for a youth One Day International against South Africa. He took 1/19 from seven overs, with the Indian team winning.
In 1996–97, Harbhajan was promoted to the Punjab Under-19s and he took 15 wickets at 20.20 in three matches, although he managed only two runs with the bat. This included match figures of 8/54 in an innings win over Jammu and Kashmir.
Harbhajan made his first-class cricket debut in late 1997 against Services, during the 1997–98 Ranji Trophy season. He took a total of 3/35 in an innings win but was dropped back to the Under-19s the following week. He then took 5/75 and 7/44 in two matches to earn a recall to the senior team. He then took a total of 7/123 in the next two matches for Punjab to earn selection to the North Zone in the Duleep Trophy competition.
Harbhajan's season was interrupted when he represented India at the Under-19 World Cup in January 1998. He played in six matches, taking eight wickets at 24.75 with a best of 3/5 against Kenya.
After returning to India, he played in three more Ranji Trophy matches, and from a total of six matches, he took 18 wickets at an average of 22.50, ranking outside the top 20 in wicket taking. He took a total of 5/131 as North lost to East Zone by five wickets.
Harbhajan played the full 2009 Indian Premier League season in South Africa, taking 12 wickets at 21.33 with an economy rate of 5.81 in 13 matches. He was one of the most economical bowlers in the competition, and took 1/9 in four overs against Punjab to win the man-of-the-match award. He ended the season with 4/17 against Delhi, but it was not enough to prevent a four-wicket defeat.
During the 2010 IPL season, he finished as the Mumbai Indian's leading wicket taker with 17 wickets with an average of 22.17, helping his team to reach the final. Harbhajan opened the bowling during the final vs the Chennai Super Kings but went wicketless. He was promoted as a pinch hitter to number 4 in the batting order but could only contribute 1 run in the defeat.
Harbhajan had a largely successful 2011 IPL as part of an effective Mumbai Indians bowling attack. He took 5 for 18, against the Chennai Super Kings during the round-robin part of the tournament, which are the best bowling figures of any player at the Wankhede Stadium in the IPL. However, the team faltered during the playoffs as they lost back-to-back matches to the Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings, to miss out on the final.
After injuries, he returned to competitive cricket to lead the Mumbai Indians to the 2011 Champions League Twenty20 title, but fell out of favor with the national selectors. He was not chosen for the home series squad against England, in October, and West Indies, in November and December. The Mumbai Indians won their first ever championship under his captaincy, winning the Champions League by 31 runs. Harbhajan was man-of-the-match for his contribution.
He went on to play the 2012 IPL, which was not successful for him, but took his team to the semi-final while being captain. Harbhajan went to play for Essex in England but was not selected for the Sri Lankan tour before the 2012 ICC World Twenty20. In his debut match for Essex against Gloucestershire, Harbhajan did not take any wicket on 12 July 2012, conceding 33 runs in his 12 overs. He was acquired by the Chennai Super Kings in 2018 after 10 years with Mumbai Indians. On 20 January 2021, Harbajan announced the end of his contract with the Chennai Super Kings. He was signed by the Kolkata Knight Riders during the 2021 IPL auction for a sum of 2 crore rupees.
Harbhajan Singh is the captain of the Manipal Tigers in Legends League Cricket, who won the 2023 title.
After taking eight wickets in his next two Ranji matches, Harbhajan was selected to tour Australia in 1999–2000, as the second spinner. He did not play in the Tests, with India opting to field only Anil Kumble. Australia whitewashed India 3–0, and Harbhajan struggled in his only first-class outing against Tasmania, taking 0/141, a portent of future unsuccessful tours to Australia.
Harbhajan was not part of the ODI squad for the Australian tour and upon returning to India in early 2000 needed strong first-class results to maintain his Test position. He went wicketless against Hyderabad, and was selected for the Board President's XI match against the touring South Africans. He took 2/88 and 2/59 and scored 38 and 39 to prevent the hosts being bowled out and defeated, but was dropped as the second slow bowler, as Murali Kartik became Kumble's spinning partner. Harbhajan returned to domestic action, taking 24 wickets in Punjab's remaining four first-class matches. He ended the Indian season with 46 first-class wickets at 26.23.
In mid-2000 an opportunity arose when Harbhajan was selected to be in the first group of trainees sent to the National Cricket Academy to study under Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, two off-spin bowlers from the Indian spin quartet of the 1970s. However, his behaviour did not conform to requirements, and he was expelled on disciplinary grounds. His sponsorship job with Indian Airlines was also reviewed as a result of his indiscipline. Harbhajan later admitted that he had been at fault at this point in his career.
At the start of 2000–01, following his run-ins with Indian cricket administrators, there was nothing to indicate that Harbhajan's chances of national selection had improved. Despite Kumble being injured, Harbhajan was again overlooked, as Kartik, Sunil Joshi, and debutant Sarandeep Singh were entrusted with the spin bowling duties in Test matches against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
During the first half of the season, still exiled from international play, Harbhajan continued to pick up wickets on the domestic circuit. In five Ranji Trophy matches, he claimed 28 wickets at 13.96. He scored 3/29 and 3/39 against Himachal Pradesh, 2/53 and 5/88 against Jammu and Kashmir, 4/77 and 2/33 against Haryana, and 5/40 against Services in the first four matches, all of which ended in innings wins for Punjab. He then took a total of 4/32 in a 199-run win over Delhi. Harbhajan's batting, which had rarely been productive up to this point in his career, also improved. He scored a career-best 84 against Haryana and added 52 against Services, aggregating 207 runs at 51.75. After taking eight wickets at 21.12 in six one-dayers, Harbhajan was selected for North in the Duleep Trophy, but his early-season form deserted him. He took five wickets at 39.00 in two matches, although he did continue his productive run with the bat, scoring 130 runs at 32.50 with three scores above 35. In October 2019, Harbhajan allowed his name to be drafted into The Hundred at a base price of $100,000, risking his international standing.
International Debut Despite the superior statistics of other bowlers in domestic cricket, Harbhajan was selected for the Indian Board President's XI to play the touring Australian cricket team ahead of the Tests. He managed only 1/127, and was ignored for the first two Tests before being selected to make his Test debut in the Third Test against Australia in Bangalore, where he scored 4 not-out and a duck, and recorded the modest match figures of 2/136 as Australia won the match by eight wickets. He was subsequently overlooked for the triangular ODI tournament in India that followed the Tests, involving Zimbabwe in addition to Australia, but was selected for all group matches in the triangular tournament that followed soon after in Sharjah, where he made his ODI debut against New Zealand. He took 1/32 from ten overs on debut as India narrowly won by 15 runs. He then took 3/41 in the next match, a defeat against Australia, but then struggled in the second qualifying match against the same team, taking 1/63 in eight overs. He was subsequently dropped for the final against Australia, which India won, and ended the series with five wickets at 33.20 at an economy rate of 4.36.
Having made little success in this phase of his international career, averaging 37.75 per Test wicket to date, and overlooked by selectors, Harbhajan faced a difficult decision. His father had recently died; as the family's only son, Harbhajan was now obliged to support his mother and unmarried sisters. He contemplated quitting cricket and moving to the United States to drive trucks for a living. After being out of the team for more than 12 months, there was little overt indication of the sudden rise that would occur in his cricketing career only a few months later.
Harbhajan was omitted from the team during a home triangular ODI tournament against Bangladesh and Kenya, after taking 0/18 from four overs in his only match of the tournament against the former opponent, but was recalled for the Singer Trophy in Sri Lanka, which also involved New Zealand. Playing in all five matches, Harbhajan claimed eight wickets with an average of 24.12 and economy of 4.38, taking at least one scalp in each match. Harbhajan was retained for the final and took 1/57, his worst return for the series, in an Indian win. After being omitted for the Sahara Cup series against Pakistan in Toronto, Harbhajan played on a weakened Indian team at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The matches were not given ODI status by the ICC, and India chose to send their better players to the Sahara Cup instead. India won their second match against Canada and had a no-result against Antigua. Harbhajan managed only a total of 1/48 from 11 overs. The Indians then needed to beat a full-strength Australian outfit to win their group and progress to the semi-finals. Harbhajan was punished and went wicketless, conceding 50 runs in eight overs as Australia won by 146 runs, knocking India out of contention.
Harbhajan was then recalled to the first-choice team and took five wickets at an average of 22.60 at 3.89 runs an over from three matches on a tour to Zimbabwe, in what would prove to be his last ODI appearances for India for more than two years. In all, he took 18 ODI wickets at an average of 27.2 during the 1998.