Was once scared that Ponting would hit me with his bat, reveals Harbhajan Singh
Harbhajan recalled a heated incident with Ponting
|Veteran Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh recalled an incident from his early days when he thought Ricky Ponting would hit him after he gave a send-off to the Australian after getting him out stumped. Harbhajan also recalled another incident where he gave a âspecial send-offâ to Ponting.
A cricketer who plays with his heart in his sleeve, Harbhajan Singhâs aggression and his attitude to âgive it backâ to the opposition set him apart in the Indian side from a very young age. Towards the mid-2000s, the off-spinner had become not just a senior figure in the team but also a dressing room leader who was willing to go to hell and beyond to back his teammates up.
And something thatâs been well documented in Harbhajanâs career has been his rivalry with former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting. Something that began in the late 90s, Harbhajanâs rivalry with Ponting for the national side stretched until the early part of the 2010s decade and, as fate had it, they ended up playing for the same side in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Mumbai Indians.
Things are all good between the duo now, but back in the day, it was anything but that. Recalling a heated incident with the former Aussie skipper, the 40-year-old revealed how he once legitimately feared that Ponting would smash him with the bat after he gave a send-off to the Tasmanian after dismissing him.
"First time I dismissed Ricky Ponting was in Sharjah. It was an ODI match and I got him stumped. After dismissing him, I said something to him that I didnât know much about. My English wasnât too good at that time, I had heard that word from a lot of people, so I also said that," Harbhajan said on Star Sports show Cricket Connected, reported Times Now.
âBecause of that I got banned from the next match. But my memory is that when he got out and I signalled him to go out, he came towards me with his bat as though he was going to hit me. So, I got a bit scared if he would really hit me.â
The duoâs last meeting came in 2010 in Bengaluru, but Harbhajan recounted an incident from the infamous Sydney Test in 2008, where heâd reserved a âspecialâ celebration for Ponting. The veteran off-spinner said that he decided to give a special send-off to Ponting, who had claimed that the âTurbanatorâ would not be able to dismiss him on Australian wickets.
"My special celebration for Ricky Ponting was in Sydney. Because he had said that I have dismissed him a lot of times in India but it would be difficult to do so in Australia. There also I dismissed him off the first delivery, so I accompanied him almost to the pavilion, doing somersaults all along the way," Harbhajan Singh said.
