ICC World Cup | Harbhajan Singh picks Navdeep Saini as his fourth seamer in Team India

Although Royal Challengers Bangalore is having a terrible outing in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League, their pacer Navdeep Saini has attracted many experts and former players’ attention with his impressive performance. He has clocked good pace and has scalped four wickets so far with a performance far better than his teammates. 

Harbhajan has backed Saini not only because of his show in the league but also the experience in domestic cricket where he plays for Delhi. Saini has 57 wickets in 37 List A matches with an economy rate of 5.01.

"Jadeja is perhaps the best fielder in the side. He can also bat and I would want a back up spinner for Chahal and Kuldeep, if one of them were to suffer an unfortunate injury for a week or two. You need a fourth specialist seamer in England too and Navdeep Saini would be my pick,” Harbhajan told India Today.

"Not just because he has bowled well in IPL which in itself is creditable in Bangalore's batting friendly wickets but also because he has won Ranji matches in the past, so he comes with domestic experience.”

The CSK spinner, who won the World Cup under MS Dhoni’s captaincy in 2011, has also opined that there is no need of having a back-up wicket-keeper for Dhoni and the team can pick an extra bowler in place of that. The names of Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant are being discussed as the second keeper in the side after the former skipper, however, Harbhajan said that in case of a small injury to Dhoni, it can be KL Rahul who can stand behind the stumps. 

"It's not that Dhoni does not have niggles. Playing cricket with him I know he has some back issues but with his experience, he knows how to play with all that," the Turbanator explained.

"I don't think you need any backup for Dhoni unless he suffers from any major injury during the World Cup. In case of any minor niggle, you do have KL Rahul in the squad who can keep. I know there is talk about Rishab Pant's X factor but it appears the team management is convinced with Vijay Shankar to start as no.4. You could have gone with Ambati Rayudu but he has perhaps lost form recently which peg him back. KL Rahul would be my back-up batsman in the squad.”