Who

Harbhajan Singh fell out of favour with Team India in the latter part of his international career
Apart from MS Dhoni, the spin-bowling legend also feels that some BCCI officials were against him
"Can't say who would be the villain in my biopic. There is not one but many," Bhajji said

Boasting of a staggering 711 wickets, including 28 fifers and five 10-wicket hauls across formats, Harbhajan Singh will always be cherished as India's most successful off-spin bowler.

Featuring in 367 international matches, Harbhajan, for long, reigned supreme as India's premier spinner before eventually falling out of favour in the latter part of his decorated career. Amid lack of opportunities and age catching up with him, the 41-year-old, last December, announced his retirement from all forms of competitive cricket.the spin-bowling legend begins a new chapter in his life, he appears to be breaking the shackles with explosive revelations about his Indian cricket journey. The veteran cricketer dropped a bombshell by claiming that MS Dhoni and some Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials were responsible for his Team India ouster.

"Luck has always favoured me. Just some external factors were not by my side and maybe, they were completely against me. This is because of the way I was bowling or the rate at which I was moving ahead. I was 31 when I took 400 wickets and if I would have played another 4-5 years, keeping in mind the kind of standards I had set for myself, I can tell you that I would have taken another 100-150 wickets or more," Harbhajan told Zee News."Yes. MS Dhoni was the captain then but I think this thing was above Dhoni's head. To a certain extent, there were some BCCI officials who were involved in this and they didn't want me and the captain may have supported that but a captain can never be above the BCCI. The BCCI officials have always been bigger than the captain, coach, or the team," he revealed.

The Punjab spinner was also hurt on getting a farewell match like other greats before him. "Every player wants to retire wearing the India jersey but luck will not always be on your side and sometimes what you wish for, doesn't happen. The big names that you have taken like VVS (Laxman), Rahul (Dravid), Viru (Virender Sehwag), and many others who took retirement later didn't get the chance,” Bhajji said.

When asked about his opinion about the recent controversy involving Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan politely refused to divulge the details before stating that it could have been handled better. "Can't say what happened between Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly. I can only tell you what I have gone through and that things could have been handled in a better way. Big players deserve respect," the former Indian off-spinner said.

In a bid to make the fans aware of his treatment in the Indian cricket team, Harbhajan also expressed his desire for a biopic to be made on his life. "I would like a film or a web series made on my life so that people can also know my side of the story, what kind of a guy I am, and what I do," said Harbhajan.

A dream that started four years ago at the Wanderers will come to fruition at the same venue in the New Year Test starting on Monday. There have been ups and downs along the way, but India are now one win away from winning in South Africa for the first time. And this opportunity comes after another series win in Australia and a 2-1 series lead in England.

Starting from England, where India led the series 2-1 before

Covid

forced a postponement of the fifth Test, to Centurion, the one pattern that has emerged in India's overseas wins is the success of their opening partnerships.

Be it at Lord's, Oval or Centurion, India have gone on to win the Test match when there has been at least one big opening partnership. In England, it was

KL Rahul

and

Rohit Sharma

while in South Africa, it's

Mayank Agarwal

and Rahul, who have given India the starts that have set the foundation

At Centurion, the Mayank-Rahul partnership of 117 runs in the first innings was the difference maker. Compare that to the opening partnerships of South Africa in both innings (2 and 1), and you will know how significant those first three hours on Day 1 were when Mayank and Rahul batted. And the victory margin? Well, 113 runs.

What makes it even more special is the fact that the openers involved are not exactly branded Test-match specialists. All three are successful in white ball cricket and it needed extreme adaptation on their parts to produce the goods time and time again on tough pitches against a quality pace attack with a red cherry.

"You have to learn to enjoy leaving balls. Yes, smashing the ball all around the park in white-ball cricket has its own thrills, but this is something that I had to learn," Rahul, who scored 123 and 23 to become the Man of the Match, said after the game.

Rahul, a natural stroke-player, went through a phase of extreme struggle as an opener in England in 2018, following which he was dropped from the Test team. From there, to consume 260 balls for a score of 123, speaks a lot about his perseverance. Talking about the consistency of the Indian openers in recent times, former India player

WV Raman

said that there has been a conscious change in their approach.

"The first thing that you'll notice in the Indian openers from the England tour is their tendency to leave a lot of balls and play close to the body. They are curbing their natural instinct to go for the expansive drive, thus minimizing the chance of edge. And when they are getting beaten, the ball is often missing the edge as well," Raman told TOI.

The former left-hander, who opened for India in the 1996-97 series when India lost 0-2, also felt that there is a conscious effort on the parts of the Indian openers to keep their bottom-hand loose. "It lends more flexibility to the shots and sometimes the edges, too, don't carry. All those things have a cumulative effect," Raman said.

The consistency of the opening partnerships by India are looking all the more prominent because there is a lack of quality openers in the teams that India have played recently abroad. While England struggled badly with the likes of Rory Burns, Dom Sibley and Haseeb Hameed,

Dean Elgar

couldn't deal with

Jasprit Bumrah

in the first innings at Centurion while

Aiden Markram

looked a fish out of water in both.

At the other end, the class of the Indian batsmen is taking over and there is some quality guidance, too, that is making the difference. While former coach

Ravi Shastri

had his own way of communicating his message, Mayank revealed how

Rahul Dravid

insisted on playing ugly if necessary