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Smashed it! Kohli dumps Harbhajan out of the ground for terming India's pitches as spin friendly

Harbhajan Singh undermined the performance of Indian spinners by saying that the pitches used against New Zealand are totally conducive for spin bowling, but skipper Virat Kohli had some other opinion.

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Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Virat Kohli
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India may have whitewashed New Zealand in the three-match Test series and risen to the top of ICC rankings but there's a certain Harbhajan Singh who is still cribbing about the wickets used in the series, terming them as spin friendly. BCCI was heavily criticised for rank turners used in the South Africa series, last year and after Harbhajan's claims, it was a matter of time that Virat Kohli would be asked about the playing surfaces of this series. The skipper did answer the question but he was careful about what he said.

Incidentally, just before the start of the last Test at Indore, BCCI's Twiter handle had posted a picture of the Holkar wicket and the Punjab lad was quick to jump to a conclusion. "Already looks like 2 days old pitch before the 1st bowl is bowled..my predictions match won't go more then 3 and half days..," read Harbhajan's tweet.

When a Twitter user countered Harbhajan by saying that the off-spinner didn't complain about the rank turners offered in the Test matches against Australia in 2004 (Mumbai) and South Africa in 2008 (Kanpur) which he was part of, the Turbanator defended himself stoutly. "Only 2 in my 103 tests.. Kumble and my test wicket count would have been something else if we got wickets like last 4 years we playing on," he replied.

After the end of the third Test, when Kohli was asked about his take on the senior player's tweets, the skipper enquired, “Who made that statement?" On being informed again that it was Harbhajan who made these statements, Kohli said, "See even if it is a turning pitch you have to bowl well. Spin doesn’t happen only off the pitch. Spin is about how many revs you impart off the shoulder first. And then the ball will do something off the pitch."

“I remember after we lost to New Zealand in the World T20, suddenly their spinners were quality and we were found out. I don’t see anyone talking about that now. The same spinners have played. Why have they not been able to pick wickets? It is as simple as that. Our fast bowlers picked wickets everywhere. We never complained about anything. You can give a guy a cement track to bat on. He (still) needs to have the mindset to score runs. It is as simple as that,” he added.

Unlike the Proteas series, none apart from Harbhajan had complained about the pitches used against the Blackcaps and Kohli said it was a team effort that gave them the clean sweep.

“We knew before the series that people are going to start talking about pitches,” Kohli said. “But we made it a point that we knew that there are monsoons everywhere, wickets are not going to be as dry. Especially in Kolkata, we knew that it wouldn’t be dry; it was a newly laid wicket. We didn’t say anything once. We believe in our abilities, we should be good enough to do it on any surface and against any team."

“That is a step in the right direction as far as our team is concerned. We believe in our skill much more, and not focus on creating atmosphere or conditions that might suit us partially. We just wanted to express ourselves the way we can on a cricket field. We finished two games in four days on perfectly fine Test cricket pitches. That gives us a lot of confidence," he signed off.

Apart from India's glorious team effort, Ashwin had picked up 13 wickets in the third Test at Indore and 27 in total in the series.  He was declared the man of the series. 

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