Harbhajan Singh was a bit of nemesis for me throughout my career: Adam Gilchrist

The 2001 Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia is widely regarded as one of the greatest Test series of all times. And, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, Steve Waugh’s all-conquering juggernaut masquerading as a Test match unit who were hell-bent on scaling the ‘Final Frontier’. And, secondly, the manner in which India made a comeback after being down and out for nearly the first eight and a half days. 

Two match-winners and champions emerged for Team India during that historic rubber. While it was VVS Laxman who played the innings of his life; one that not only changed the complexion of the Eden Gardens Test but also changes the thinking of future teams and captains on follow-ons. And, secondly- The Turbanator- Harbhajan Singh.

Adam Gilchrist, who is celebrating his 20th Test debut anniversary has now revealed during “The Unplayable Podcast” with cricket.com.au that Harbhajan was a bit of a ‘nemesis’ for him throughout his career. The former Aussie wicketkeeper-batsman, who was one of the victims of Harbhajan during his monumental hat-trick during the Eden Gardens Test, also reminisced about everything that went down for him after his 122 in the first Test at Mumbai.

“We were five for 99, I went in there, got a hundred off 80 balls, we won in three days and I just thought, ”What have these blokes been doing for 30 years. How easy is this? And how wrong I was. We’ve only got to fast forward to the next Test match and I came back to reality,” said Gilchrist.

‘Harbhajan bamboozled us’ – Adam Gilchrist

Post the first Test, Gilchrist realized what it was to bat in India as in the next four innings, he managed just two runs which also included a pair in Kolkata. Gilchrist admitted that Harbhajan and Muralitharan were probably the hardest bowlers he faced in his career while also stating that the 2001 series helped Australia learn the art of restraint amidst the realization they couldn’t attack all the time.

“As it would turn out, by the end of that series we probably needed to learn how to put a handbrake on just to get a holding pattern, rather than ”attack, attack, attack” because it doesn’t always work – Harbhajan bamboozled us. He was a bit of a nemesis for me right throughout my career. I found him and Murali probably the two hardest bowlers to face,” he added.

“We changed our tactics a great deal. In 2001 what we learnt was we can’t just attack our way out of every situation. We had to learn to swallow our ego and go defensive, and that was very much part of the whole collective mindset of the group; (for example) the bowlers had to take a step back and a run-in with the new ball with one slip and a sweeper on the leg side,” he added.

Harbhajan emerged to be the nemesis for not only Gilchrist but for the entire Aussie team- especially Ricky Ponting, who managed just 17 runs across 3 Test matches. As for Bhajji, he finished with 32 wickets.

[interaction id=”5dbaf2992b2176300d62fe31″]