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Well played, Harbhajan Singh

Former India spinner Maninder Singh reckons Bhajji has been in great form. "His floater is troubling almost all batsmen in the Indian Premier League. But given a chance, I would have definitely gone for leggie Yuzvendra Chahal for the simple reason that he is still below 25 and has shown great temperament," he said.

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The MS Dhoni era is effectively over. At least in Test cricket.

And the biggest beneficiary of it all is not new Test captain Virat Kohli, but a 35-year-old off-spinner who was in the wilderness for more than two years.

So what exactly prompted Sandeep Patil and his colleagues to pick Harbhajan Singh for the one-off Test against Bangladesh in Fatullah next month? The simplest answer is that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has undergone a massive change. Change leads to more change.

With Tamil Nadu strongman N Srinivasan no longer the presiding deity of the BCCI, the selectors realised it was the right time to please the new boss (read Anurag Thakur) so as to score some brownie points and, of course, ensure their survival. And they did just that by dropping two players who owe their allegiance to the Chennai lobby (Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja) and picking someone who is close to the men who matter now.

The same bunch of selectors did not even discuss Harbhajan's name in the last few meetings because every other significant selection was approved by Chennai. Can any of these five gentlemen explain that even if they feel Bhajji has experience on his side, what on earth stopped them from fielding a youngster against a team like Bangladesh?

If India are scared of losing to a team like Bangladesh, then you might as well stop reading this piece.

Thakur, the new BCCI secretary, also belongs to Jalandhar, which is also Bhajji's hometown. Interestingly Vikram Rathour, the former India and Punjab batsman, was Bhajji's former teammate. Rathour is the North Zone representative in the selection committee. And let's not forget that Rathour is also a close family friend of the BCCI secretary and has always been seen as Thakur's "proxy". This phenomenon is not to Indian cricket. Over the years, we have seen players and former players dancing to the tunes of the BCCI officials.

Former India spinner Maninder Singh reckons Bhajji has been in great form. "His floater is troubling almost all batsmen in the Indian Premier League. But given a chance, I would have definitely gone for leggie Yuzvendra Chahal for the simple reason that he is still below 25 and has shown great temperament," he said.

Maninder talks about several instances when Chahal got hit for a six but never shied away from tossing the ball up. "That's the trait of a bowler who could come good in the future."

Going by the official version, Bhajji has been picked as the second off-spinner to R Ashwin because of the large number of left-handers in the Bangladesh Test squad. Good thinking, but on what basis?

Bhajji played only three first-class matches in the Ranji Trophy this season and picked up six wickets with a best of 3/51. And if the selectors have taken his 16 IPL wickets into consideration for a fixture in which he will be expected to perform in a vastly different format, then one has no choice but to give a high-five to Patil & Co.

Patil's logic is weird. "Bhajji has been picked to take care of the (six) left-handers in the Bangladesh team," he said on Wednesday. So, why didn't they pick him for the three-match ODI series too? Ah, apparently, they didn't want to start "chopping, changing or disturbing the combination of the team that had reached the World Cup semifinals (because it) was unnecessary".

That simply means that keeping Stuart Binny, who didn't even get a chance in New Zealand where swing rules the roost, looks a great pick for sultry Bangladesh. At least that's what Patil wants us to believe.

Simply put, Patil & Co. have played their cards very smartly. But what they have forgotten — or chosen to ignore — is that Bhajji took just five wickets in the last two Tests he featured in, against Australia at home in 2013. He averaged 40.80 per wicket. In the same series, Ashwin and Jadeja picked up 29 and 24 wickets respectively (in four Tests) at an average of 20.10 and 17.45 apiece.

One must consider that even though Bhajji's decline began during the 2011 tour of England — he picked up just two wickets in the 70 overs he bowled at an average of 143 in two Tests — but his 'smart planning' then is paying rich dividends now.

We all know that our superstar cricketers — from Bhajji to Dhoni — have all become smart businessmen. Bhajji, too, invested smartly. His venture, a cricket academy in collaboration with the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, is going to be operational soon at Tahliwal, near district Una, Himachal Pradesh. Another academy of Yuvraj Singh is already operational in Bilaspur for the last year or so.

It would be interesting to see whether Bhajji could take Himachal cricket to a different level or not, but his own career has certainly been taken to the highest level by this new BCCI coterie. Happy times for Indian cricket!

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