‘Bhajji, you have seen my good side, but if I want, I can be rude’ - Harbhajan Singh recalls moment when Sachin got angry at him

Former India offspinner Harbhajan Singh is widely revered as one of the greatest Indian spinners of recent times. Recently, the 42-year-old came forward to share an incident from the India tour of Australia in 1999. Harbhajan shared an incident where then-India skipper Sachin Tendulkar got upset with him for being distracted.

He recalled being distracted on the boundary line, which made Tendulkar lose his cool. Harbhajan talked about how on his first trip to Australia, being just a 20-year-old, the former spinner got distracted by a 'few pretty girls' sitting at the boundary line. Writing in the newly published ‘Sachin@50’, Harbhajan Singh wrote, "For a 20-year-old who had just started touring  and was on his first trip to Australia, stealing a few furtive glances and exchanging smiles I thought were par for the course."

"Now because of my inattentiveness, I was late in anticipating a few shots that came towards the boundary. But things got worse when I got caught busy ogling, and I didn’t hear Sachin shouting from mid-on, as he wanted a field change. Instead, before I realised it, he was standing beside me, visibly angry. ‘Bhajji, please know one thing. You have seen my good side, but if I want, I can be rude, and you wouldn’t like to see that side of me, you better concentrate," he added.

You cannot be distracted by the stardom: Tendulkar

Furthermore, Harbhajan Singh also wrote about how Tendulkar’s advice helped him attain the success that he did in international cricket. The former Indian spinner talked about how Tendulkar sat with him long after the Test was over and gave him some valuable advice.

"Sachin, I remember, pulled a chair and sat beside me long after the Test got over. ‘Bhajju, have you seen a racehorse? It doesn’t look sideways. It doesn’t have peripheral vision. It looks straight, and the eyes are transfixed on the target. You have to be that. You cannot be distracted by the stardom which you have attained now," Harbhajan Singh wrote.