It was like India-Pakistan: Harbhajan Singh describes facing CSK in IPL

“Luckily, we played our first match against Mumbai. I was like, ‘it was good we got over this match early’. Throughout the first season, it was difficult. After that, we won the trophy. The second season was better.”

Harbhajan Singh has compared the battles between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings to the cricketing rivalry shared by India and Pakistan. The offspinner, who has played for both IPL franchises across the last 12 seasons, described the MI-CSK rivalry on par with the mother of all cricketing battles. “First time, it was very strange. I was like ‘what is this? Is this a dream?’ Whenever we played against CSK, it was like India-Pakistan, it was a tough game. Then suddenly, I was not wearing blue and wearing yellow was difficult. It was very difficult to get used to,” he said during an interview with Chennai Super Kings on Instagram Wednesday.

File image of Harbhajan Singh. (IPL)

“Luckily, we played our first match against Mumbai. I was like, ‘it was good we got over this match early’. Throughout the first season, it was difficult. After that, we won the trophy. The second season was better.”

Harbhajan represented four-time IPL winners MI between 2008 and 2017, before being acquired by three-time champions CSK in 2018 and the offspinner revealed he found the experience of putting on a Yellow jersey different. In two seasons, Harbhajan has claimed 23 wickets with CSK making it to the final in successive editions, winning the title in 2018 and finishing runner-up last year to MI. After a disappointing season in 2018 with seven wickets from 13 games, Harbhajan roared back with 16 in 11 a year later.

“Winning the Indian Premier League with Chennai Super Kings in 2018 was a very special moment,” he said. “And last year, we finished runner-up. I think we played brilliant cricket. Obviously, after having played for 10 long years in Blue, moving to Yellow took some time, but by the end of the season we had won the title.”