India vs Australia | Harbhajan Singh calls for better pitches after India debacle

BySrijith Gopal, SportsCafe Editor

02/25/2017

Harbhajan Singh, who has been a vocal critic of India's dustbowl strategy over the years, has seized his chance now that India have finally faltered - the offie congratulated Steve Smith for scoring a century on a "no pitch" and then added India should start winning on good tracks from now on.

Harbhajan Singh has not shied away from voicing his opinion on India's strategy of welcoming touring sides with dustbowl pitches. They tried a different ploy against England, and the visitors almost put India on the mat in that first Test before the hosts came back strongly and made that a distant memory with a whitewash.

Bhajji had also been involved in a "Twitter war" with R Ashwin earlier about the spinning tracks which the TN spinner had ended on a conciliatory note.

For once though, Harbhajan happened to get on to the right side, although tragically it came in India's first loss in 20 Tests. Not one to let go of a chance to prove his point, Harbhajan tweeted a back-handed compliment congratulating the Australian team that was aimed more at taking a stab at India.

Everyone was expecting Harbhajan Singh's response to India's loss and this is what he had to say:

Credit to @CricketAus 4 playing unbelievable well on tht wicket.let's hope we play on good tracks frm here onwards nd get th right results
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) February 25, 2017

Harbhajan, however, refrained from talking much about his prediction that went wrong - that the Aussies would lose the series 4-0. Before the series, he had predicted a humiliating loss for Australia. "If Australia play well, India will win 3-0. That is if Australia play well. Otherwise, 4-0," predicted Harbhajan Singh calling them "the weakest Australian side to tour India."

Australian Test team captain Steven Smith had respectfully responded to the jibe saying, "Yes, I guess we are the underdogs in this series. You hear comments like Harbhajan who expect us to lose 4-0. That's not how we feel. We want to compete here against India. It's going to be a tough series, they've got some quality players in their line-up. So yes, it's going to be difficult."

Steven Smith appears to have replied to that on the pitch notching up his 10th Test hundred and his 5th Test hundred against India. The captain scored 109 in the 2nd innings whereas India had scored only a total of 107.

Harbhajan congratulated Smith on the century but again could not resist taking a potshot at the pitch.

Take a bow @stevesmith49 that's an outstanding inn on that pitch actually no pitch..where it looks difficult to play every ball..IndvsAus
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) February 25, 2017

However, it appears things are not as sinister as Bhajji has laid it out to be. The curators of the Pune pitch had no directions to prepare a rank-turner to welcome the Aussies, and it was the more than expected levels of searing dry heat that Pune experiences this time of the year that led to the current state of the pitch.

Whichever version you believe, what do you think India should do for the next Test?