Sports India

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh may well hold the key for India’s success on the slow pitches of Sri Lanka in the forthcoming Tri-Series that also involves South Africa .

With Anil Kumble not selected again, Harbhajan’s form will be extremely important for India in the Tri-Series.

Harbhajan, who is already India’s most successful off-spinner, exercises great command over the ball, has the ability to vary his length and pace, and can turn it the other way too.

With a whiplash action, remodelled after he was reported for chucking in November 1998, Harbhajan exercises great command over the ball, has the ability to vary his length and pace, and can turn it the other way.

His main wicket-taking ball, however, is one that climbs wickedly on the unsuspecting batsman from a good length, forcing him to alter his stroke at the last second.

Harbhajan, who at the age of 26 is already India’s most successful off-spinner, has gone through so much in his personal life that his success is a tribute to his resilience.

Harbhajan made his debut for India in 1998 but was accused of chucking by the umpire during a tournament in Sharjah in 1999.

Devastated by the accusation, Harbhajan was determined to adjust his suspect bowling action and under the guidance of former English cricket great Fred Titmus, he was able to make the necessary adjustments, which would set him on the path to Indian cricket history.

Identified by Indian cricket authorities as a player of great promise, Harbhajan was invited to train at India’s cricket academy, such an invitation would generally lead to a long and distinguished career in Indian cricket.

However, the hot headed 19 year old Harbhajan, believed the training methods being utilised at the academy, were old fashioned and not in step with the modern game. His opinions did not go down well with the Indian cricket authorities who did not take kindly to the attitudes of the young and inexperienced player.

After storming out of the academy, it appeared Harbhajan would be doomed forever to languish in the ranks of domestic cricket and any chance of representing his country was gone.

With the death of his father in August 2000, changes started to appear in the attitude of Harbhajan, who was left with the legacy of having to look after his younger sisters as the result of his father’s death. The young hot head started to mature quickly with the responsibilities he had now inherited, he realised the importance of the position he was now in and the fact that cricket could well be his future.

Maturing at a fast pace, Harbhajan started to come to the attention of both the national selectors and Sourav Ganguly , the then captain of the Indian team. However, the selectors would not consider him for the series against Australia as a result of his previous reputation.

In the absence of Kumble due to injury, Ganguly argued furiously with the selectors for the inclusion of Harbhajan in the Indian squad before the first Test against Australia. Although aware of the reputation of Harbhajan as a hot head, Ganguly was more focussed on the exceptional talents and bowling skills of Harbhajan and apparently, looked on his attitude with a different light than that of the selectors.

Ganguly demanded the inclusion of Harbhajan and whatever he said, it worked. Harbhajan was included in the squad to meet Australia for the first Test in Mumbai.

Although India lost the first Test to the Aussies by 10 wickets and the bowling performance of Harbhajan was only mediocre with figures of 4/132 from a total of 32 overs bowled, Ganguly was determined to persist with the young bowler and give him another opportunity in the second Test in Kolkata.

And rest as they is history as not only did Harbhajan write himself into Indian cricket history by taking the first ever hat-trick by an Indian bowler, his bowling destroyed the Australian batting attack, resulting in an unexpected win for India and squaring the three test series, 1-1.

Harbhajan’s figures of 13 wickets for 196 runs from 68.2 overs for the match were an exceptional performance apart from the superb innings from VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid .

It was clearly evident that the Aussies, had no idea how to play Harbhajan.

The faith Ganguly had shown in Harbhajan was well rewarded, India was now in the box seat to take the series and bring the winning streak of the Australians to a standstill.

Under immense psychological pressure, the Aussies once again crumbled under the bowling of Harbhajan during the third and final Test in Chennai.

With figures of 15 wickets for 217 runs from 80.1 overs in the final Test, Harbhajan rewrote the record books of Indian cricket once more for the most wickets in a series by an Indian bowler against Australia with a total of 32 wickets at a strike rate of 1 dismissal for every 17.03 balls bowled.

It was not the fact Harbhajan could turn a ball so ferociously as to make it unplayable, the secret with his bowling, lies in the fact, his bowling action is unreadable.

Normally a batsman can read the bowling action of a new bowler reasonably quickly, due to the fact, each type of different delivery is performed with its own unique arm and wrist action.

This is not the case with Harbhajan as he makes the delivery of a non-turning ball, look exactly the same as the delivery of one, which spins. It’s this that causes the problems for batsmen, they cannot anticipate what type of delivery to expect from him.

The fact Harbhajan, can also loop the ball through the air, causing it to fall shorter than anticipated by the batsman, further adds to the confusion of anticipating where the ball will strike the bat, regularly resulting in the batsman playing a shot incorrectly, or untimed and for this he will get immense help from the slow pitches of Sri Lanka.

THERE is one bet that a cricket aficionado would have staked his house on two summers ago: that Shahid Afridi, the game’s most electrifying presence, the personification of the sporting maverick, a man incapable of the ordinary, would never develop the self-control, still less the sanity, required of a Test cricketer.
Yet the Pakistan allrounder has done precisely that. He has turned himself into a Test cricketer and one that is consistently good enough to be picked in the world’s second-best XI for II of the last 15 games. Self-control and consistent behaviour, on the other hand, remain occasionally elusive.
Two months ago having proved himself at Iong last, he retired from Test cricket aged 26, citing fatigue. Within weeks, he had backtracked. Last winter he was suspended for illegally roughing up the pitch, in full view of the television cameras, to make life trickier for England’s batsmen. Yet without that competitive fire bequeathed by his ancestors, that insistence on doing things his way, the world would be one entertainer worse off.
For the volatile scion of a Khyber warrior tribe, born Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi, being obliged to grow up in public must be seen as the crucial factor in his evolution as the era’s most exciting cricketer (he ranks just behind Sachin Tendulkar as the subject of the most searches on the Cricinfo website).
An international debut at the age of 16 is tricky enough - simultaneously hitting the fastest one-day international century ever is almost a guarantee of excessive hope, intermittent glory and repeated disappointment. He was impulsive and knew it: “I just want to hit every ball out of the ground. I can’t help it.”
A decade on, the journalist Osman Samiuddin describes his coming of age as “a vivid tribute to Pakistan’s new team ethic” in which “his genius and lunacy are both now comfortably accommodated".
Afridi’s maturation is no common-or-garden rebirth. Mavericks and team sports, by and large, are not a comfortable fit. For crimes of rejecting caution and daring to look foolish, such instinctive, wilful performers are envied, distrusted, abused and usually scorned, one way or another.
That is why, much as legspinner Shane Warne possesses untold inspirational and tactical acumen, he has never been Australia’s fulltime captain. It is also why it was virtually impossible to imagine Afridi making the Test grade.
Initially, what made his name also thwarted his desire to be regarded as something more than a freak. Here, even now, is a batsman who disdains defence. Whether his innings is short or long, whether the opponents are worthy or not, the song is invariably the same.
The fastest one-day international century? The 37 balls he needed against Sri Lanka on that barely believable debut in Nairobi. The second-fastest? The 45 balls he took against India last winter, a figure shared by Brian Lara of the West Indies.
Nobody has scored faster in a one-day international innings of 50-plus than his 56 off 18 against Holland: 305.56 runs per 100 balls. Of the 20 speediest such innings, five are his. Quick as he is between the wickets, he would rather not bother running. While Australia’s Matthew Hayden has barvested – the highest ratio of boundaries in a half-century or better (96 per cent), the next four are Afridi’s. Small wonder the Cricinfo site dubbed him “the maddest of Mad Maxes". Not until the end of Pakistan’s dispiriting Australian tour of 2004-05 did this highly useful form of insanity translate to regular Test selection. Here, it seemed, was the ultimate proof of the abridged game’s inferiority. Unsure of his role, he had played fitfully in 14 Tesfs spanning six years, hardening prejudices. Trying to adapt, he had been compromised, hesitant. Since returning in Sydney, however, he has averaged 45, hit three centuries and claimed 25 wickets, emboldened by a sympathetic outsider in coach Bob Woolmer.
Tellingly, he usually saves his best for old rivals India. In January he romped to 103 off 80 balls, battered a Testbest 156 off 128 deliveries and made every effort to hit Harbhajan Singh’s highly reputable off-spin for six consecutive sixes (he had to make do with four after the ball ran into a gutter and became too soggy to savage).
In Bangalore the previous March, he had walloped the second fastest Test 50 ever seen, then picked up vital last-day wickets - including those of Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman - to square the series. Once, after being struck over extracover, a flummoxed Anil Kumble, a spinner with more than 500 Test victims, was reduced to a plea: “Where should I bowl to you?”
During this purple patch, Pakistan overtook England and India in the Test rankings and now sit behind only Australia. This is not pure coincidence. Afridi has won a victory for rebels with causes, for the independent spirit that courses through Pakistani veins more freely than those of any other cricketing nation.
The most revealing statistic is that scoring rate. Pre-Sydney, he had proceeded at 67 runs per 100 balls: a largely futile attempt to adapt, to restrain, to obey the legions of critics. Since then, the rate has soared to nigh-on 113, while his average has improved by nearly 50 per cent. Among batsmen averaging 45-plus since July 2004, the next quickest rate is Virender Sehwag’s 78, a handsome figure rendered puny.
In essence, Afridi has turned risk into art. Indeed, as Test scoring rates rise to unprecedented levels, the game seems to be adapting to him.
Arguably more significant – exhibiting a versatile as well as an inventive mind – is the way his bowling has evolved. Crucially, noted the columnist Kamran Abassi, the realisation that his bowling was valued eased him into his batting role, leaving him less insecure.

Originally selected as a leg-spinner, he was once content to float the ball, a slave, perversely, to convention. These days, as a bowler of extremely waspish wrist-spin (75mph-plus, some 20mph quicker than Shane Warne), he profits from variations in flight and pace, confounding the best and becalming most. In keeping with everything he does, and everything he is, he barely pauses between balls, the approach to the stumps being a joyous, restless dance.
Now there is even talk of him succeeding Inzamamul-Haq as captain. For an unreconstructed maverick, it would be a poke in the eye for those twin enemies of sporting excellence: orthodoxy and pragmatism. For Afridi has succeeded, not by growing up, getting wise and accepting his limitations - but by growing up, getting wise and being himself.

As a schoolboy, he did harbour dreams of succeeding in cricket as a fast bowler. No wonder then that many of his victims have perished fending. Only, he was scalping them now as a spinner.

Anil Kumble. Enigmatic, charming, lethal, persevering, honest, inspiring, aesthetic, graceful… many things have been said by many people about Kumble the world over. And now emerges the crowning glory from Sachin Tendulkar, his long-time team-mate and admirer.

The master was precise in his description of the affable leg-spinner, who once nearly gave up the sport in pursuit of engineering, “He is a great bowler, who doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone anymore. He is the greatest bowler India has produced.”

The greatest Indian bowler, says one of the greatest batsmen to have graced the game. “Kumble has got 500 Test wickets, which is incredible, and look at his grit and determination. He can fit into any side.” Once again, Tendulkar was succinct.

Comparisons, we know, can be odious. Tendulkar or Sunil Gavaskar? Kapil Dev or Ian Botham? “Please don’t compare,” pleads Chandu Borde, the forceful batsman of yesteryear and former chairman of National selectors. “Kumble is unique. I won’t compare him with Subhash (Gupte). They were different in many ways,” asserts Borde.

For that matter, Kumble cannot be compared with B. S. Chandrasekhar either. Both were unconventional in that they produced unsettling pace and were continued to be called as spinners. But they were different.

Kumble did at one point confess that he was motivated by Chandra but there was not much interaction between the two. Of course, there were scattered sessions when Chandra would have taught a trick or two, but then such occasions were rare. “I just told him general things,” Chandra would say.

The development in Kumble’s bowling came from his intense desire to succeed. “His improvement was amazing. I liked the way he prepared himself for the difficult situations and generally gave the impression that he was willing to shoulder the responsibility,” observes Kapil, who held the Indian record for the highest number of Test victims until the genial leg-spinner decided to inscribe his name there.

Kumble was said to be very limited in his range. True, very predictable. But it is also true that the same man developed into a trusted match-winner, carrying the team forward with his versatile stuff, his repertoire causing problems to the best of international batsmen. Bowling has never been a strain for this wonderfully gifted cricketer, who derives the greatest joy of life only when holding the ball and planning his `kill’. Wicket-taking is an art that assumes a sublime form in Kumble’s devotion to become an all-time great match-winner.

He has always had a good perspective of things. “I know my limitations. It is always better to know how far you can go and how much you can achieve with your talent,” says Kumble. And he was quick to learn the nuances of accuracy in international cricket.

Stifle the batsman, give him no room to play shots and wait patiently for him to commit an error. Kumble’s philosophy has remained so simple. But it requires monumental dedication and this is one area that he can proudly claim to be his strong point.

Kapil was a bowler for all seasons. His best wickets came overseas in exacting conditions. The famed Indian spin quartet was known to benefit from amiable pitches, but Kapil, and later Kumble, needed no such favours. They charted their own way to success, relying on their art to set the batsman up.

Kumble has always carried out his own research to understand the skills of leg-spin. The variations that decorate his bowling today have been developed over a number of years. He confides he is yet to harness the regular flipper, but unerringly produces that magical googly that he has come to master.

Kumble has to be rated the greatest Indian bowler for the sheer number of matches he has won and the volume of success achieved by motivating his partners at the other end. “What is a Harbhajan Singh without Anil Kumble?” This comes from Harbhajan himself.

Bowlers in the last 15 years have enjoyed the company of Kumble. “He bowls and we get the wickets,” quips Murali Kartik, who reveres Kumble for his modesty. From Venkatapathy Raju, Rajesh Chauhan, Narendra Hirwani to the likes of Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla, the Kumble Fan Club has only swelled.

Kumble’s bowling technique may not appeal to those who love flamboyance on the field, but there is a definite method to his effective and pleasant style where value is attached to victories. Like Kapil, the modest Kumble too has had to often explore alone, but then he has displayed perfect harmony when taking on the opposition in the company of partners with lesser abilities.

Never the one to court controversy, Kumble once came close to enacting a villainous deed. Frustrated at not being able to make an impact during an Irani Cup contest at the Wankhede Stadium, he could not resist from appealing when batsman Jatin Paranjpe played defensively, and not seeing a fielder in sight, picked up the ball and tossed it back to the bowler. “Are you sure?” asked the umpire when Kumble appealed for `handling the ball.’ Kumble continued even more vociferously and the umpire had no option but to give Paranjpe out. But the sportsman in Kumble revolted and he withdrew the appeal in time. Paranjpe returned, so did sanity and Kumble escaped a blot that would have been indelible. A close witness to this incident was Sanjay Manjrekar, who today, does not shy away from naming Kumble as a great role model.

It is hard to imagine that a person so equable and a bowler so cultured would leave a trail of destruction with batsmen hopping and squirming in pain. On helpful tracks, more when the bounce is not predictable, Kumble is known to go berserk. Many a time Tendulkar and Dravid have silently thanked their stars that they happen to be on the same side as Kumble. The ball hitting the gloves and taking off menacingly is a hallmark of Kumble’s bowling. And he is known to make the most of such assistance from the pitch. Look at his tally — 533 Test victims.

“It is a severe test to face him in the `nets’ because he just does not relent,” admits V. V. S. Laxman, who also takes his batting seriously. It is this intensity that sets Kumble apart. We all know how committed and disciplined he has been in his service to the team, but very little is known about the hours he spends in practice.

At the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, locals have known this diligent student of the game to bowl hours and hours with young and inquisitive cricketers for company. These are Kumble’s experiments with his cricketing truth. “I keep testing myself because if I lower my guard it hurts the team,” he stresses. His selfless pursuit to serve the team’s cause is exemplary indeed. Wrong notions have never disturbed his concentration in the most distressing of times.

It is a tribute to Kumble’s abilities that, at 35, he holds a special place in an environment that promotes fast bowlers. The quick bowlers, in turn, would do extremely well to borrow the consistency with which the legendary leg-spinner, who just refuses to fade, operates. The National selectors have not been able to recognise his value to the side in the shorter version of the game, but Kumble has accepted their policy most graciously. In fact, he has self-admittedly gained immensely because such ill-treatment only steels his determination to silence his critics.

A bowler who is reputed to win Test matches single-handedly has been excluded from the one-day team for reasons that can only be termed appalling. But then Indian cricket has never learnt to honour its heroes and the case of Kumble only confirms this jarring aspect of the success story scripted by Rahul Dravid’s team in the last one year.

A shoulder injury kept Kumble out of the game for more than a year but he did not lose his focus. “It is this focus that stands out in his bowling. I marvel at his desire to go on and on,” gushes Tendulkar. There were times when Kumble was dropped from the playing XI, but he never complained, even though he wept silently, shattered by the humiliation. That he has not given the public a window to peep into his wounds speaks for the man’s character.

Indian cricket has known a variety of leg-spinners, some who excelled — Chandra, Gupte and Hirwani — and some who were deprived — Narasimha Rao and Rakesh Shukla — but none comes close to achieving the grade of success that Kumble enjoys: 533 wickets in Tests, 329 in ODIs and 1005 thus far in first class cricket.

Sometimes statistics do portray a sportsman’s career. The canvas becomes colossal when the artist happens to be Kumble. His conquests have been recorded all around the world and as Tendulkar insists, they grow in esteem when you realise that Kumble has been exceptionally brilliant when bowling overseas.

It is indeed Indian cricket’s fortune that a bowler like Kumble has given his best for 16 years now, relentlessly plotting victories, the playing conditions becoming a secondary factor. One has not known Kumble to fret and lose sleep over the state of the pitch. He has confidence in his art and nothing else matters once he grips the ball to unfold his skills, mysterious for the batsmen but soothingly comfortable for his captain.

With respect to performers in Indian cricket in various eras, the fact remains that Kumble stands tall on the sheer strength of his feats. The honour of being hailed as the greatest Indian bowler belongs to him right now.

But it is his journey towards emerging the greatest Indian cricketer that shall engage our attention as Kumble enters the most exciting phase of his career.

As of now, no date can be set for Kumble’s glorious departure from the game. Such is the spirit of this indefatigable match-winner, who holds his place firmly with his unique brand of spin bowling.

Team India will explore novel ways of training as the cricketers set off for a surprise destination outside Bangalore city…

Team India will explore novel ways of training as the cricketers set off for a surprise destination outside Bangalore city tomorrow to kick off the conditioning camp for next month’s tri-series in Sri Lanka.
“Tomorrow morning, the team will leave for a place outside Bangalore for teaming up and doing a lot of physical training. It will not be open to the media,” trainer Gregory King told reporters.
King said the team management favored adopting new techniques of training keeping in view its usefulness. “It is a team management decision to try out new techniques. In the past too, we tried out a few new things which produced positive results,” he said.
The conditioning camp will conclude on August 1 with outside activity. Coach Greg Chappell, who is currently holidaying in the US, will join the team on August 4. King made it clear that choosing a place outside Bangalore had nothing to do with the facilities at NCA.
“NCA is not lacking in anything. We are only trying to do something new which I am not able to elaborate,” he said. So far, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, V V S Laxman, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh have reported at the camp and the rest are expected to join in the evening. On Sachin Tendulkar’s fitness, King said the master batsman is perfectly all right. “John (Gloster) told me Sachin’s fitness level is normal. The man himself would not have been available if he was not fit. From my own perspective, I will be watching Sachin in action,” he said.

Balaji’s impressive swing bowling in Pakistan was an important factor in India’s success there in 2003.

Ashish Nehra’s swing at high pace could be destructive at times, but he mysteriously disappeared from the team after his creditable performance against New Zealand and Zimbabwe last year.

Zaheer Khan’s high promise as one of the premiere pacemen in the world notwithstanding, he has done a disappearing act as well.

Irfan Pathan, who bent his back to register respectable radar readings, and had the uncanny ability to bend the ball both ways at will, has been criticized publicly and eventually dropped.

It seems that Greg Chappell has banished most of the bowlers that saw India emerge as a team with one of the best pace attacks anywhere. He has exchanged the impressive fast bowling battery with a bunch of rookies who looked undercooked in the West Indies.

VRV Singh embarassed himself repeatedly as he showed he could not run in without dislodging the bails at the non-striker end. The much-touted pace hope struggle to get to 135Kph, and seemed to run out of steam quickly. Sreesanth was expensive, but a trier. Munaf Patel did well by comparison, but even he looked exhausted quicker than you would normally expect. In the ODIs, both Munaf and Sreesanth were expensive and unable to get needed strikes.

Were it not for old warhorse Anil Kumble, and in the last couple of tests Harbhajan Singh, India may have done as poorly in the Tests as in the ODIs. Indeed, Harbhajan was dropped for the first two games despite being one of the two best bowlers in the ODIs along with Ajit Agarkar, who was sent back after the end of the ODI series for reasons best known to the selectors.

The lack of a bowling coach, the fall of India’s emerging strength in pace, and the elimination of tried and tested performers indicates that Greg Chappel and his companion Ian Frazer have taken India backwards in this respect.

It is thus heartening to hear names such as Balaji, Zaheer and Nehra again. The selectors must correct the slide in India’s bowling performances by picking the best bowlers available.

India will bounce back from the 4-1 ODI series defeat in West Indies in May and win an overdue trophy in next month’s triangular series in Sri Lanka, according off-spinner Harbhajan Singh .

South Africa are the third team in the August 14-29 tournament.

Harbhajan said before joining the conditioning camp that began in Bangalore on Tuesday India were fully capable of beating hosts Sri Lanka at home.

“They know their conditions and know the total which can help them win. But having beaten them 6-1 in India last year, Sri Lanka obviously know we are a very different side now,” he said in Mumbai.

India won 18 out of 24 ODIs against Sri Lanka, South Africa, Pakistan and England before West Indies beat them in May.

Sri Lanka defeated India in their previous two meetings in a final at home–by 18 runs in a Tri-series tournament last year and by 25 runs in the 2004 Asia Cup–and are currently on a high after beating England away 5-0.

“They apply pressure on the batsmen by using their spinners very well in the middle overs and their fielding is top class,” Harbhajan said.

“We always got good starts out there, but didn’t continue that well in the middle overs and that’s where we lost the games,” he said.

Harbhajan blamed the West Indies ODI series defeat on poor Indian batting.

He said, “They (West Indies) were not scoring more than 240-250, which are scores we should be successfully chasing any day with the kind of batting we have.”

India managed to wipe the memory of the poor one-day show by winning their first Test series in the Caribbean in 35 years. Victory in the final Test handed the Indians a 1-0 win.

India will bounce back from the 4-1 one-day series defeat in West Indies in May and win an overdue trophy in next month’s triangular series in Sri Lanka, leading off-spinner Harbhajan Singh forecast.
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South Africa are the third team in the August 14-29 tournament.

Harbhajan told Reuters before joining the conditioning camp that began in Bangalore on Tuesday India were fully capable of beating hosts Sri Lanka at home.

“They know their conditions and know the total which can help them win. But having beaten them 6-1 in India last year, Sri Lanka obviously know we are a very different side now.”

India won 18 out of 24 one-dayers against Sri Lanka, South Africa, Pakistan and England before West Indies beat them in May.

Sri Lanka defeated India in their previous two meetings in a final at home – by 18 runs in a tri-series last year and by 25 runs in the 2004 Asia Cup – and are currently on a high after beating England away 5-0.

“They apply pressure on the batsmen by using their spinners very well in the middle overs and their fielding is top class,” Harbhajan said.

“We always got good starts out there, but didn’t continue that well in the middle overs and that’s where we lost the games.”

Harbhajan blamed the West Indies one-day series defeat on poor Indian batting.

He said: “They (West Indies) were not scoring more than 240-250, which are scores we should be successfully chasing any day with the kind of batting we have.”

India managed to wipe the memory of the poor one-day show by winning their first test series in the Caribbean in 35 years.

Victory in the final test handed the Indians a 1-0 win.

Left-hander Dinesh Mongia, who has made a comeback to the Indian team for the upcoming tri-series in Sri Lanka, has said that all-rounders now had a crucial role to play in a team’s performance.

“I had said this two-three years back that role of all-rounders will be important. Now, I feel that time has come,” Mongia, who had come for a practice session at the Sector 16 cricket stadium here, told PTI.

The Punjab left-hander, who last played for India in April 2005, was of the view that modern cricket was about being a contributor in all three departments of the game.

“Your batting, bowling and fielding counts,” Mongia, who was playing for English county Leicestershire when he was named in the Indian squad, said.

The selectors while picking Mongia had said that he will add depth to the side with his all-round ability.

Chairman of Selectors Kiran More had said that Mongia’s left-arm spin will add variety to the attack (of two off-spinners - Harbhajan Singh and Romesh Powar)".

On the forthcoming tri-series, Mongia said that he would put in his best effort, but added that he will approach each game as it comes.

On next year’s World Cup, he said there was still some time left for the mega event and he was concentrating on the tri-series for now.

Sachin Tendulkar will return to the India team for next month’s one-day series in Sri Lanka following the shoulder injury that has sidelined him since March.

Selectors have included India’s premier batsman in a 15-man squad for the series involving Sri Lanka and South Africa to be played in Colombo from August 14-29.

In another change to the squad that lost the one-day series 4-1 in West Indies in May, all-rounder Dinesh Mongia has been recalled after a year’s absence.

Meanwhile, opener Robin Uthappa and middle-order batsman Venugopal Rao have been dropped.

“We are looking at Mongia as an all-rounder, especially his ability to bowl left-arm spin,” said chairman of selectors Kiran More.

“We have two off-spinners (Harbhajan Singh and Ramesh Powar) and we want more options in the spin department.”

Leg-spinner Anil Kumble missed out on a recall but More hinted at his possible return in the near future. “We know what we are targeting, we have something in mind for him,” More said.

Kumble, 35, is India’s most successful one-day bowler with 329 wickets but has played little limited overs cricket since the last World Cup.

The squad will undergo a two-phased camp in Bangalore before leaving for Sri Lanka on August 10.

Squad: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Suresh Raina, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Dinesh Mongia, Rudra Pratap Singh.

Schedule:

Aug. 14: Sri Lanka v South Africa (day/night)

Aug. 16: Sri Lanka v India (day/night)

Aug. 19: India v South Africa (day)

Aug. 21: Sri Lanka v South Africa (day)

Aug. 24: Sri Lanka v India (day/night)

Aug. 26: India v South Africa (day/night)

Aug. 29: Final (day/night)

Undaunted by the growing competition for the spinner’s slot in the Indian Test squad, Harbhajan Singh says he just focusses on giving his best every time, instead of worrying about losing his place to a rival.

The ace off-spinner, considered an integral part of Team India till not very long ago, was dropped for the first two Tests against West Indies in the recent series but came back strongly with five-wicket hauls in the last two matches.

Harbhajan said increased competition only brings out the best in him and as a senior, he does not worry about any threat.

Asked specifically if the presence of another off-spinner in Ramesh Powar was putting additional pressure on him, he said, “I don’t feel any threat due to Powar. Every player has to perform on the ground to book his place in the Indian team.

“When I play, I always try to give my best and if I keep any threats in mind, I will not be able to deliver the results at all,” he told PTI in an exclusive interview here today.

“Since I am an established player, I don’t have to worry about any threat. But obviously in case of competition, players always perform to their best, which is good for the team.”

Harbhajan spoke at length on a variety of topics, ranging from Sourav Ganguly’s comeback to India’s preparations for the World Cup and his marriage plans.