NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan cricketers never fall short of taking digs at each other. And the feisty character that Harbhajan Singh is, the former off-spinner is always up for a contest.
While commentating in the third Test between India and Australia at The Gabba in Brisbane in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Harbhajan lauded India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah for dismissing Usman Khawaja and also took a sly dig at former Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal.
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Khawaja, who has been struggling for runs at the top of the order, had a torrid time playing and missing against Bumrah.
He added just two to his overnight 19 before Bumrah finally drew the faintest of edges through to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
Harbhajan says in a clip shared by the official broadcaster, “Because Bumrah is science man. I was watching an interview of Saeed Ajmal with Usman Khawaja and in that he had said ‘What is science, man, science is man.’ So Bumrah is science, he is a very big scientist, his work starts where science fails because he knows where to pitch the ball. And that’s an art, Bumrah knows how to make a batsman play and Khawaja doesn’t know how to play Bumrah. He is special, he is different from others, his art is different and his stats show what a great bowler he is.”
And as fate would have it, Bumrah dismissed Australia opener Nathan McSweeney on the very next ball having him caught by Virat Kohli and that prompts Harbhajan to say in excitement, “He is special, Bumrah, this is science.”
This was the fourth time that Bumrah dismissed McSweeney in this series.
The Indian bowlers, who were wasteful in their brief outing on Day 1, were much tighter and troubled all the Australian batsmen.