Slap… this time in the face of critics

After being in the news for all the wrong reasons in recent times, it was a relieved Harbhajan Singh one saw after India won the second Test against Sri Lanka on Sunday. For once, the off-spinner was being spoken about for the right reasons, not least of them being his 10-wicket haul in the Test that helped the visitors level the series with a comprehensive 170-run win.

“It’s satisfying to come out of the controversy. I am happy and now I want to keep playing and take more and more wickets for the country,” Harbhajan said simply. Moving away from the past and talking about the present and the future, Harbhajan said it was his patience that helped him get those wickets.

“I was more patient here than the previous Test in Colombo. Despite hard work, no plan worked in our favour there. I also tried to do something different here,” he said. “I decided to bowl a little bit faster to use the breeze blowing across the ground. It helped me to drift the ball,” he added.