India vs England: Harbhajan Singh Slams R Ashwin, Says, ‘Landing the ball in the Rough Patch Could Have Got Wickets’

India’s dismal show continued at the Southampton as the guests not only lost the match by 60 runs but also stood defeated brutally in the Pataudi series by 3-1. While players like Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag blamed the Indian team management, spinner Harbhajan Singh blamed Ravichandran Ashwin for the loss. According to him, Ashwin’s poor performance in the series led India to such a defeat and also hailed England bowler Moeen Ali. (Virender Sehwag & Sourav Ganguly slam Indian team management)

"There was so much help available on this wicket for the off-spinners. Just landing the ball at that particular rough patch would have fetched a lot of wickets. That is exactly what Moeen Ali did and got so many wickets," Harbhajan said. Bhajji hailed England spinners and said that they were better than India. "India lost the match where Moeen Ali bowled better than R Ashwin. For the first time, I saw England spinners bowling better than our spinners. Him (Ashwin) not being able to take wickets is the reason why we are 1-3 behind in the series," Harbhajan told India Today.

"I really don't know how serious was Ashwin's injury. If it was serious then the team management should have known it. And if he was really fit then he failed to bowl like it was expected of him. Moeen Ali was making a comeback in the England team and won the Man of the Match award. He is a very good bowler though does not rate himself so highly. He will always bowl better than the rest as his trajectory is very good. Indian team has not been able to find any solution to his bowling since 2014 when he performed exceptionally well against us at the same venue," he further went on to say.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 04, 2018 08:51 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).