Still has to prove himself. Review on Harbhajan Singh

After the match-fixing controversy which almost ruined the game and resulted in the loss of the popularity of the game, the Test Series and ODI series between India and Australia were the most looked forward to get back the status that Cricket had lost.

This series had many records at stake: 1) India's unbeaten test series win record at home in the last approx.15-16 years, 2)Australia's record of unbeaten 16 consecutive test match wins, and many more.

India did win the series, and most of the praise was given to India's two latest finds- VVS Laxman and Harbhajan Singh. The media gave a lot of hype to these two. But lets sit back and think again about Harbhajan Singh. He has received so much praise for his performance, but is it worth it? It's not saying that he is not a good player, but he still has a very long way to go, considering that he still in his twenties`.

HARBHAJAN SINGH-THE BOWLER

He is a very good off-spin bowler. He did have some problems with his bowling action, which had to be corrected. At such a young age, he manages to bowl a good line and length and is very consistent when it comes to placing the ball in the exact spot he wants. He gets the ball to turn well, but cannot be compared to other bowlers who are big-turners of the ball.

CAREER RECORD

This is probably too early to analyse on his career record. Most of the landmarks in his career have come during the recent test series against Australia. He managed to take more than 5 wickets in 4-5 innings, including a hat-trick in one of them. And also took 32 wickets in the entire series. He has a commendable Economy Rate, and a good average.

His record in the ODI's are not that impressive and hardly manage to attract anyone.

BOTTOM LINE: Harbhajan will go on to play well for India. He should work on his batting and should try more variations and bowl from stump-to-stump. He still has to prove himself on international pitches and against other teams, too.

He has got a lot of hype from the media. But he still isn't one of the best bowlers in our side. The all-time great spinner, Prasanna, pointed out that he did not take any wicket by getting the batsmen out bowled, and many of the wickets came from catches. He has to try to bowl from stump-to-stump. Also, he was not able to repeat his performance in ODI. He is good, but not as great as the media hyped about it.