On Friday (December 24, 2021), Indian Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. In his career, the 41-year-old has taken 417 wickets in 103 Tests, 269 wickets in 236 ODIs, and 25 wickets in 28 T20Is.
In 1998, Harbhajan made his Test debut against Australia in Bangalore, and it was Greg Blewett who turned out to be his first test wicket. His maiden ODI cap came when India played New Zealand in Sharjah in April of the same year. Matt Horne was his first ODI wicket.
Three years later, however, the off-spinner reached even greater heights as he helped India win a memorable 2-1 Test series against Australia by taking 32 wickets. In that series, he also recorded his best Test figures of 8 wickets for 84 runs.
Harbhajan was also part of the Indian team that reached the final of the 2003 50-over World Cup and won the title in 2011 with nine wickets. In 2007, he was a part of the team that won the T20 World Cup in South Africa.
Harbhajan also played a crucial role in India's memorable overseas victories in Leeds (2002) and Durban (2010-11 season), taking four and six wickets respectively. In the drawn Test in Cape Town in 2010-11, he recorded his best Test figures away from home - 7 for 120. In 2016, he played his last international game against the UAE in the T20 Asia Cup.
Harbhajan played 163 IPL matches and took 150 wickets. During his best season in the IPL, he took 24 wickets at an average of 19 for the Mumbai Indians in 2013. Harbhajan played 198 first-class matches and took 780 wickets as an off-spinner. He made his first-class debut in 1997 for Punjab versus Services.
He was also a useful contributor with the bat in hand, with two-Test hundreds versus New Zealand at home in 2010. In addition to those two hundred, he also scored nine fifties in the longest format of the game.