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ToggleOut of favour spinner, Harbhajan Singh recently narrated an incident from his international debut which helped him gel with the senior cricketers of Team India. Currently, Harbhajan is working as a sports commentator in the three-match series between India and South Africa.
The off-spinner from Punjab made his Test debut in 1998 against Australia in Bengaluru. He was heard reminiscing about his first outing with the Indian Test team. Harbhajan Singh spoke about the language barrier that made him feel uneasy in the team meeting before the first day of the match.
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He went on to say that the then skipper Mohammad Azharuddin came to his rescue. The former India skipper came to Harbhajan and asked about his problem before making things easy for the young cricketer.
“Before my debut Test, the players were speaking in English in the dressing room during a team meeting. I didn’t understand much as I couldn’t speak the language back then. I was asked to speak something but I told them I couldn’t speak in English,” Harbhajan told the official broadcasters.
“That is when Azharduddin came up to me and asked me what the problem was. I said I cannot speak the language. He asked me which language I was comfortable with and I said Punjabi. He then asked me to speak in Punjabi during the team meeting,” he added.
Since his Test debut, Harbhajan Singh has had an illustrious career. The Turbanator represented India in 236 ODIs, 103 Tests and 28 T20Is for India and has scalped 269, 417 and 25 wickets respectively. He was also a part of the World Cup winning squad in 2007 and 2011.