Harbhajan Singh Biography

Harbhajan Singh was born on July 30, 1980 in Jalandhar, Punjab. He is rated as India's most successful off-spin bowlers. He also holds the record of being the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in Test cricket.

'Bhajji' as Harbhajan Singh is popularly called by his team mates was born in a middle class family to a businessman father. Although being the only son he was in line to inherit the business, his father encouraged him to play cricket. Trained as a batsman first he later started bowling off spin bowling with the untimely death of his first coach.

Harbhajan Singh made his Test debut against Australia on March 25, 1998 in Bangalore. Despite a good ODI performance he was overlooked for international cricket for the next 2 years including the 1999 World Cup.

Harbhajan Singh's career was resurrected by then Indian captain Sourav Ganguly who called him to play in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy of 2001-02. His outstanding performance in the series against Australia in India, including a first ever hat-trick by an Indian bowler in a Test innings, saw him emerge as the Man of the Series. His Test success earned him a place in India's ODI team.

After a major finger surgery in 2003, Harbhajan Singh returned to the ODI scene in July 2004.His return to the Test scene was again versus Australia where he put up a good performance again.

Harbhajan Singh also holds the record for being the second youngest player to claim 200 Test wickets. He was selected for the 2007 World Cup squad. He is known in the cricketing circuit as an unorthodox bowler who is attacking and has an aggressive attitude.