Harbhajan Singh played for India’s victorious sides during both the 2007 T20 World Cup as well as the 2011 World Cup, taking 269 wickets across 236 ODIs. He was a key part of Team India in almost all formats of the game. He has numerous records to his name and will always be part of the Indian cricket team’s history.
Harbhajan Singh, who represented India from 1998 to 2016, acknowledged that while some players may have been playing in their last World Cup, others may have had the opportunity to continue playing. The right-handed off-spinner said that “It is beyond my understanding that the team was considered good till winning the 2011 World Cup but suddenly so many changes in that team after that. People who were winning games were no more good.”
The former Team India bowler spoke to News 24 and said, “There were some players in that team for whom it seemed like it was their last World Cup but there were few players who could have played. We could have played more – me, Yuvi, Gautam, several players could have played more. But let’s not talk about it, it’s all gone.”
“It will be nice if we come together and play”: Harbhajan Singh
Along with Harbhajan, the team that won the ODI World Cup had some of the most illustrious players to have ever represented India, such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, and Zaheer Khan.
However, the same group of players did not play together for India afterwards after winning the 2011 World Cup championship match in Mumbai, which even Harbhajan Singh is unsure of the reason why. He said, “This I don’t know that. They were probably used till the World Cup only and it’s a mystery for me too why that team never played again even for a match, very surprising. I hope, I wish things could be rectified. It will be nice if we come together and play. It will be great fun but very unfortunate that the team didn’t assemble again and didn’t play another tournament or even a match.”
