It was in 2013 that Harbhajan Singh last bowled a ball in a Test match. It has been four long years since he has featured in an ODI. But, he has fond memories of playing in blues and an everlasting one at that - being a part of the 2011 World Cup winning squad. A month after that World Cup triumph he did fly to West Indies for a 5-match ODI series, only to play three of those and return with four wickets. He featured in India’s T20 World Cup campaign in 2012, but didn’t have the best of numbers to show. Time passed, competition became brisk and slowly a phenomenon called Harbhajan Singh began to fade away under new rising stars. The off-spinner was overlooked for the fixtures to follow and from then on began a fight, a battle to make it back to that Indian side. A battle that is not yet won, but definitely by his claims, would be won soon. He says he has dreams of making it back to the Indian team and there is no day when that thought doesn’t cross his mind. “There is this burning desire inside me to make it back to the Indian team,” Bhajji says, his eyes almost screaming the desire that he just mentioned. “That is the reason why I am playing cricket. Playing for India is the biggest thing and the most satisfying thing for me. That is the biggest motivation for me.” He has 413 Test wickets and 259 ODI wickets and close to sixteen years of international experience; he is out of the side but still turns into a child with a glitter in his eye each time he mentions making a comeback for India. “Every day I wake up, I wake up with a dream and that is to get back into that Indian side. All I tell myself is to continue to bowl well and keep doing what I have been doing right over the last few years. I am making sure that I tick all the boxes that I have chalked out for myself to get into the Indian side. I have been working really hard on my game.” Harbhajan is quick to realise that the road to his ‘dream’ is not easy. “I realise there is competition and there has always been competition. But I have been there and done well. Why can’t I do it again? I don’t think I am old, I am playing competitive cricket, I am doing well and I am pretty happy about it.” Bhajji then rewinds the clock and throws numbers of his success in the past few IPL seasons. He sure knows his numbers and makes a strong case for himself. “The year Mumbai Indians won the IPL (2013), I took 24 wickets and in the previous year I took 14. Again, this year I have bowled well and taken 16 wickets. I have been bowling well and I am looking forward to better things ahead. Hopefully I can make a comeback in the Test matches. That is what I want to do. Playing for India is something which we all want to do at the end of the day. Hopefully with the kind of performances I am putting in, I will get there where I want to be.” It’s not just his wicket-taking abilities that have come to the fore. A few weeks back, at the Wankhede Stadium, he showed how good he is with his willow as well, scoring a 19-ball half-century. Back at the Wankhede against the Chennai Super Kings in the Playoffs, he showed he still had the zing in him to turn matches on his head. Two batting powerhouses, among the best finishers in the game, had occupied the crease on Tuesday night in pursuit of 188. Bhajji snapped both - a well-set Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni - off successive deliveries. “We knew if we had to win this game we had to get Raina and Dhoni out,” he begins to elaborate on his plans. “Raina is a fantastic player in this format and so is MS Dhoni. These two have been brilliant for CSK and for Team India as well. I just wanted to bowl to the best of my abilities and make sure I didn’t give anything loose for them to operate with. I had a set plan for them and I had to stick to them and look to get them out rather than be defensive against them.”

But it is Dhoni’s wicket that got him pumped up. “He is a match-winner and getting his wicket was a match changing kind of a thing for us. I felt good about it because I knew if he played 20-odd balls, it would be a different ball game altogether for us and for them. It was quite satisfying to get his wicket because he is a brilliant player. “I was just looking to bowl in my areas and he saw that there was no short fine-leg and he was looking to play the lap shot to me to get one or two runs. On his good day, he would have connected, but I guess it was a good day for me. Things just went my way and I bowled to the best of my ability and got the rewards. I am glad we won this game.” He looks like a bowler with a plan and works towards executing them effectively. He knows the shortcomings as a bowler and is prepared for the challenges in this cruel format. “As a bowler you just have to back yourself in tough situations and make sure you are one step of the batsman. This is a batsman’s game. A batsman has small boundaries and big bats to play with and a bowler can go for a lot of runs. You have to make sure you have to look to take wickets rather than defending. Anybody can go for runs; you might as well go for a few runs but in the process take a few wickets.” Bhajji turned the match in Mumbai Indians’ favour. Quite literally. In the process they have progressed to yet another IPL final and the bandwagon moves to Kolkata for the grand finale. “It feels great to be in the final once again. We have worked really hard to get where we are. It has been a terrific turnaround because people have taken up responsibilities. Each and every individual in that team wanted to do better than their last performance and improve their own game. We have looked a different team altogether. There is just one more game left and I know I need to bowl well and hopefully do the job for the team yet again.”

A job well done overall and a job well done for the night for Bhajji. Next morning he will wake up to that dream he mentioned a while back, with that desire burning inside him with the same kind of intensity.