IPL 2021 | Sure that Harbhajan will do a great job for KKR, opines Dinesh Karthik
40-year-old Harbhajan will represent KKR this season
|BCCI
Former Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Dinesh Karthik has suggested that veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh will do really well for the franchise this season. He lauded Harbhajan's work ethic and said that it's been fabulous to see his intensity and interest despite achieving so much already.
In the mini-auctions, earlier this year, KKR further boosted their spin department by adding veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh to it's ranks. Now, the franchise boasts Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Harbhajan Singh, and Pawan Negi in their spin attack and have the strongest line-up of spinners in the IPL, on paper. Ahead of the 2021 IPL, practice sessions are going on in full swing as teams are fine tuning their skills.Ā
Dinesh Karthik, who had stepped down from captaincy mid-way through the season last year, has been left impressed with how hard Harbhajan Singh is working in the practice sessions. The former KKR skipper revealed that he's doing everything that one can, even at this stage of his career and reckons can do well for the side.Ā
"He is bowling in the match and also fielding all 20 overs. That's about as much as you can ask for from a man of his stature! He has achieved everything. Yet to show this kind of interest at this stage of his career speaks volumes of him as a character. I am sure he will do a great job for KKR," Karthik said, reported TOI.Ā
The 40-year-old spinner had missed the last season of the IPL and after that, he was released by Chennai Super Kings. But, now he's sweating hard in the nets and Karthik further revealed that his intensity and interest in training has been great.Ā
"Picking him I think wasn't easy, considering that he has been around for so long. But the amount of interest and intensity he has shown in the last one week is just fabulous," said Karthik, who is a former captain of KKR but was replaced by Eoin Morgan following poor performances."
Karthik and Harbhajan go back a long way and have played together for India as well. Karthik asserted that the off-spinner comes the earliest to training and is there on the ground three hours even before the practice games begin.Ā
"He has been coming to practice sessions early, much ahead of all other players! And he has been doing it consistently! I think he is a different man now from whatever little I have seen of him this week.Ā
"Even in a practice game that starts at 7 PM, he had come at 4 O'clock! He was batting before that, he bowled to Shakib (Al Hasan) and (Eoin) Morgan, and then did his stretching again before getting into the practice game," added the KKR wicket-keeper.
Kolkata Knight Riders will kick-start their IPL campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 11 at Chepauk.Ā
