KKR top player announced retirement from all forms of cricket before IPL 2022
Indian spinner And Former KKR Kolkata Knight Riders top player Harbhajan Singh on December 24 announced retirement from all forms of cricket before IPL 2022. In an emotional social media post and a YouTube video, former 50-over Cricket World Cup and T20 World Cup winner Harbhajan Singh announced his retirement from cricket.
Taking to Twitter, he wrote, “All good things come to an end and today as I bid adieu to the game that has given me everything in life, I would like to thank everyone who made this 23-year-long journey beautiful and memorable. My heartfelt thank you :pray: Grateful.”
Harbhajan Singh was last featured for India in a T20I against UAE back in 2016 and ever since limited himself to domestic cricket. India’s finest spinner has 417 wickets to his name in just 103 matches. While picked up 227 wickets in 236 ODI matches. For T20Is, the Turbanator played for India in 28 matches and claimed 25 wickets. Across the 13 seasons in the Indian Premier League, he played 163 matches.
Singh’s former teammates and commentators took to Twitter to wish him after his announcement. “Hearty congratulations to my great mate Harbhajan Singh on a remarkable career,” VVS Laxman tweeted.
A young Harbhajan Singh bolstered his credentials after a successful home Test series against Steve Waugh’s invincible Australia in 2001. Replacing an injured Anil Kumble, ‘Bhajji’ was crowned ‘Man of the Series’ in performances that stopped the Kangaroos record unbeaten run. He took 32 wickets in the series, including the first ever Test hat-trick for India.
Prior to his ascendancy during that series, Harbhajan made his ODI and Test debut in 1998. After a year in action, few noteworthy displays coupled with a suspect bowling action was all that emerged and he was eventually relegated to domestic cricket. His return after a two-year hiatus was a one filled with renewed determination that epitomized captain Sourav Ganguly’s fearlessness.
Following his stand-out performance against Australia, he forced selectors to rethink India’s bowling line-up by opting for a two-pronged spin attack in tandem with Anil Kumble. He added further repute as a player with his pinch-hitting abilities as a tail-ender.
In 2011, Harbhajan led the Mumbai franchise in the Champions League and emerged victoriously. However, a poor run of form in international cricket forced him out of the team and he was left out for the home series against West Indies and the tour to Australia later that year. Immediately, the off-spinner went back to basics and improvised in his stint with Essex.
He did get a few opportunities to come back but his shoddy performances coupled with the meteoric rise of Ravichandran Ashwin meant that he had a very little opening to become the mainstay again. Although, Harbhajan did make a comeback to the Test side and became the 10th Indian to play 100 Tests when he played against Australia in Chennai. But after that, he was dropped and sent back to the domestic format.
An impressive performance for Mumbai in the 2015 Indian T20 League and Harbhajan was called up again for the only Test against Bangladesh that year. In the 2015-16 season, he played a few Tests and some ODIs and also got a chance in the 2016 World T20 squad. Since 2016, Harbhajan hasn’t played in the national colours in any format and it is very unlikely that he will make a comeback again. Although he has not announced retirement, his career is all but over.
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In recent years, Harbhajan has become a bowler who has been economical but hasn’t been able to pick up wickets consistently. After playing for 10 years with Mumbai, he was released by the franchise and was bought by Chennai in the auction for the 2018 Indian T20 League. Just before the start of the 2020 Indian T20 League, Harbhajan Singh pulled out of the tournament due to personal reasons and for the next edition, Kolkata Knight Riders KKR acquired his services. Harbhajan Singh retirement from all forms of cricket before IPL 2022.
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