A few eyebrows were raised when reports of veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh entering the draft of The 100 in England surfaced on Thursday evening. The Indian cricket board (BCCI) has however made it clear that Harbhajan has not officially entered the draft.
“Harbhajan has never sought a No Objection Certificate from the BCCI. He can’t just enroll his name in any league. It’s against the BCCI’s policy. The board has checked with him after the report surfaced and he has categorically denied any such development,” a top BCCI official told late on Thursday.
Harbhajan’s 417 Test wickets puts him as the 13th-highest wicket-taker overall and the third on the all-time Indian list in the longest format. In ODI cricket, Harbhjan is fifth on the all-time India list with 260 wickets. Despite having featured in the inaugural World T20 that India won in 2007, Harbhajan has only played 28 T20Is.
However, his stock in the IPL has always soared, where he is joint-third on the all-time list grouped with legspinner Piyush Chawla at 150 wickets. After a long and successful stint at Mumbai Indians, Harbhajan was bought by another multiple-IPL winner, Chennai Super Kings, led by old friend MS Dhoni in 2018. In the last two years, Harbhajan has been used by Dhoni mostly in the Powerplay where he has taken 11 wickets at an economy rate of 8.4 and average of 25. Overall he has 23 wickets in the last two seasons of the IPL in 23 innings at an economy rate of 7.67 and an average of 25.30.
