With 'MS Dhoni's men' around, Harbhajan Singh not on selectors' radar: Sourav Ganguly
Describing Harbhajan Singh as one of the country's top spinners, the former India captain slammed the selectors for not choosing the 'turbanator' over Mahendra Singh Dhoni's choice.
Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly feels out-of-favour off-spinner Harbhajan Singh can make a comeback to the national team if the selectors look beyond those favoured by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. (Read: Sourav Ganguly's success mantra)
"I think Bhajji can make a comeback to the national side in both forms of the game," Ganguly told a news channel in Kolkata on Tuesday. (Read: Ganguly tells Virat to enjoy captaincy)
Describing Harbhajan as one of the country's top spinners, the former India captain slammed the selectors for not choosing the Jalandhar man over Dhoni's choice. (Read: Dhoni's Test captaincy 'obnoxious': Ganguly)
"I believe the selectors don't think much on this (Harbhajan's selection) and especially when you have captain's men around," Ganguly said. (Watch: Why SRK axed Ganguly from KKR)
Incidentally, Harbhajan, who last played a Test against Australia in March 2013, has played six Ranji Trophy matches this season picking up 23 wickets at an average of 26.60.
The former captain was not too convinced about leg-spinner Amit Mishra's inclusion in the Indian squad for both the Asia Cup and the Twenty20 World Cup at the expense of Harbhajan and Pragyan Ojha.
Describing Mishra as an "average spinner who is slow in the air," Ganguly pointed out that it would be tough for the Indians to contain batsmen from scoring.
"He (Amit) is slow in the air and this makes it easy for a batsman to read him. It can be recalled how (Shane) Watson was hitting him in Nagpur during the ODI last October," the former captain said.
Ganguly also criticised Mishra's fielding and questioned the selectors decision to ignore Harbhajan and Ojha.
"Amit's fielding is also not outstanding. I am not sure whether he would be able to make any difference to the team because all these sides are from the subcontinent and they know how to play spinners on these flat wickets. I am surprised that how come Bhajji and Ojha are sitting outside the team," he said.