Turning back the pages with his new tweet through his official Twitter handle, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has reminisced the good old days under the leadership of former India captain - Sourav Ganguly. Attending Ganguly’s book launch of ‘A Century Is Not Enough’ in Kolkata, Harbhajan shared his love and respect for the former skipper who was known for his on-field aggression and unique style of captaincy.
During his captaincy days, Ganguly unearthed and backed many talented players to the hilt in the Noughties. It's under him, the likes of Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and Ashish Nehra prospered in India colours and made it big at the international stage. Many of these stalwarts still owe a lot to the 'Prince of Kolkata' who instilled in them a sense of belief and a fearless attitude to win in every situation.
Harbhajan Singh himself achieved many laurels for the country and gone on to become one of India's biggest match-winner both in Tests and ODIs under Ganguly's reign. Showering his love on the former captain, the 37-year old spinner wrote on his Twitter handle, "Happy to be here in kolkota to launch my captains book... Time flies from 2001 till today but our bonding has become even stronger ...you will always be my CAPTAIN! #souravganguly @SGanguly99"
The Jalandhar-born spinner also played an instrumental role in India's memorable win against Australia in the historic Eden Gardens Test in 2001. Apart from VVS Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid's (180) record-breaking 376-run stand for the fifth wicket, it was Harbhajan who picked up 13 wickets in the Kolkata Test. He also picked up a famous hat-trick in that Test to become the first Indian cricketer to achieve that feat. His victims were Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne.
Interestingly, it was also Harbhajan's first five-wicket haul in Test cricket for India.
Harbhajan is at the fag end of his career and will be seen in action during the upcoming Indian Premier League, which starts on April 7. After spending 10 years with Mumbai Indians, he was picked up by Chennai Super Kings in this year's player auction earlier this year in January.