Harbhajan Singh is gearing up for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League which begins on April 9 in Chennai. He will be playing for Eoin Morgan-led Kolkata Knight Riders, who will kickstart their campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 11.
It’s going to be Harbhajan’s first experience in a bio-bubble as he had pulled out of the tournament in the previous edition citing personal reasons. On Wednesday, the off-spinner revealed why he didn’t join his previous franchise – Chennai Super Kings – in UAE last year.
“Last year, when IPL happened, Covid-19 in India was at its peak. I was concerned about my family and also about hard quarantine in India after coming back. But this year, it's happening in India and also we have now got used to new normal,” Harbhajan told PTI.
“Vaccines have come. Also, it's my family who pushed. My wife (Geeta) told me that I should go and play,” he added.
But he accepted that not having played a lot of cricket in the interim did make a difference when it came to the dynamics of auction.
“These questions are asked because I haven't played a lot of cricket of late so teams are a bit defensive at auction and they don't want to bid for me. But let me remind you all that when I did well for CSK in 2019 IPL, I hadn’t played any domestic cricket. I came to the camp, prepared and went into the match. At my level and experience, I know what needs to be done.
{{/usCountry}}“These questions are asked because I haven't played a lot of cricket of late so teams are a bit defensive at auction and they don't want to bid for me. But let me remind you all that when I did well for CSK in 2019 IPL, I hadn’t played any domestic cricket. I came to the camp, prepared and went into the match. At my level and experience, I know what needs to be done.
{{/usCountry}}“I don't need to play domestic cricket for Punjab and stop a young talent from flourishing. That boy needs that chance more than me,” he said.
KKR’s principal owner Shah Rukh Khan had called Harbhajan just after the auction to welcome him to the KKR family and expects to see him with the IPL Trophy.
“We have a good team. T20 is all about three players in a team, could be any three, clicking on that particular day. You see Mumbai Indians are a side that has all its bases covered but they are still beatable. It could be a Rahul Tripathi or a Nitish Rana can win it for us,” Harbhajan said.