Only last night Harbhajan Singh expressed his “burning desire” to a website that he was desperate to once again play for India and by morning his wish came true. The national selection committee, which met here on Wednesday, picked the off-spinner for the only Test in Bangladesh. Harbhajan last played a Test match for India in March 2013 against Australia.
The selectors retained the majority of the squad that toured Australia last year with the exception of left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja. Another player who was not picked was fast bowler Mohammed Shami, who is recovering from a knee injury that he picked up during the World Cup and also ruled him out of the IPl. There were speculations that many first-choice players would be given rest as they have been playing continuous cricket for a long time now but no player made any request to the selectors, who picked the full-strength squad for both the formats. During the short tour, India will play one Test (June 10 to 14) in Fatulla and three ODIs (June 18, 21 and 24) in Mirpur.
In an interview to iplt20.com after guiding Mumbai Indians to the IPl Final, Harbhajan said, “There is this burning desire inside me to make it back to the Indian team. That is the reason why I am playing cricket. Playing for India is the biggest thing and the most satisfying thing for me. That is the biggest motivation for me.”
Chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil said the decision to pick second off-spinner in Harbhajan was taken after considering that the Bangladesh Test squad has several left-handers. “The Bangladesh batting order has six left-handers, keeping that in mind, we discussed with the captain and we felt it was necessary to have a second offspinner,” Patil said.
“I also want to point out we not only discussed Harbhajan. We also discussed other youngsters and considered them. Ultimately the selection committee and the captain felt this was the right choice for this particular tour,” he added. Though Harbhajan’s performance in the three first-class matches that he played in the last Ranji Trophy season (6 wickets with a best of 3 for 51) wasn’t inspiring enough to earn him a recall, his form in the IPl for Mumbai Indians has been impressive — 16 wickets in 14 matches.
The temperamental spinner is the third highest Test wicket-taker for India with 413 scalps to his credit in 101 matches. The Test team has no place for veterans such as Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Pragyan Ojha. “There was no discussion on Yuvraj Singh. It will be difficult for me to say, who all were discussed. Whoever we felt, the captain and the selection committee, we discussed,” Patil said.
“When we pick somebody, the selection committee represents each and every cricketer of the country. We don’t have emotional angles, we don’t have emotional attachments. We look for performance and the fitness and the combination. “Everybody reported fit except Mohammed Shami and he will be available after four weeks. Otherwise everybody was available for selection,” he added.
Patil said none of the senior players sought exemption from the tour. “We understand that our team has been playing continuous cricket. It’s not only our team, all the other teams are also playing continuous cricket. If you look at the policy which the selection committee has followed, we have been giving rest to a couple of players and we have considered requests from the players side also. “But particularly regarding this tour, there was no request from any player so we went ahead picking the best-possible combination,” he said.
Speaking about the combinations, Patil said the rival strengths and weaknesses were taken into account while deciding to line-up. “When there is talk about selection and combinations and we talk about picking 15 players, the discussion about slots and our selection is based on all these factors. As I had earlier mentioned that with the kind of Bangladesh batting order and their six left-handers in the line-up, we discussed a need of having two off-spinners,” he said.
“We also discussed about a few upcoming young off-spinners and then zeroed in on Harbhajan Singh. As the selection committee and the captain thought it to be the right choice,” he added. Asked why the team was not tinkered with too much, Patil said, “We have just returned from the World Cup where we performed well. Chopping and changing the team combination is not what we felt would be right. If needed, or any fitness issue crops up, we will look into it then.” On Jadeja being left out, Patil explained, “We not only discussed Ravindra Jadeja but all the other spinners who were there for selection. We’ve selected the best-possible spinners for this tour.”