![\"When](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-130507350,imgsize-29268,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/sachin-tendulkar-with-harbhajan-singh-file-photo.jpg\" "\\"Sachin")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMUMBAI: It was a balmy Friday in Mumbai, and the CK Nayudu Hall at the Brabourne Stadium got warmer with emotion as members of the Legends Club congregated to celebrate Sachin Tendulkar\u2019s 53rd birthday. Nuanced conversations followed, anecdotes were narrated, generous dips into nostalgia pools were taken, and sharp views on where the game is headed were offered.At the centre of this conversation sat off-spin great Harbhajan Singh, India\u2019s 103-Test veteran and owner of 417 Test scalps. He\u2019s also a World Cup winner in 2007 and 2011, an IPL<\/a> stalwart, a politician, a broadcaster, a YouTuber, and, at heart, an unapologetic lover of Test cricket and true pitches.As Legends Club president and former India player Yajurvindra Singh welcomed Harbhajan and MCA president Ajinkya Naik, he also asked the spinner to address how cricket has changed from the days when a 60-over match was approached like a mini-Test. Harbhajan, after all, represented a very different era, almost an unforgiving one for the bowlers. He arrived when cricket was already changing. One-day cricket had sunk its teeth into the calendar, T20 was an idea waiting to explode and short boundaries and big bats meant long faces for spinners who were being asked to be defensive rather than threatening.<\/p>\n Watch<\/span><\/p>\n Bombay Sport Exchange: Munaf Patel on Gautam Gambhir, Virat vs Bumrah & Indian bowling.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Bhajji, though, was also someone who had graduated through the rigours of Test cricket.\u201cTest cricket tests you in every possible way,\u201d Harbhajan said. \u201cPlaying 100 Tests was the biggest achievement of my career,\u201d he added and stressed that playing 100 Tests became his goal when he saw Kapil Dev get to the mark, but doubted whether too many people would achieve that in the modern era.Heads nodded in agreement, though the discussion inevitably turned to modern cricket\u2019s obsession with shorter formats, six-hitting and money-spinning leagues.So, where does Test cricket stand today?Harbhajan\u2019s answer was firm. \u201cSave Test cricket by playing more Test cricket,\u201d he said, and added, \u201cAnd by preparing better pitches. Matches should last five days, not finish in two-and-a-half. If we see Ashes, the top series, the games last five days. When India plays Australia, why should Tests end in two and a half days? We had an India-England Test where we saw Joe Root take five wickets in five overs. I remember how many overs I needed to bowl to take a Test five-for.\u201dLike the Eden Gardens Test of 2001, where Harbhajan spun India back into a dead series against Australia. It was a reminder of what five-day cricket enables: shifts in momentum, broken morale, revived belief.Spin bowling, too, became a focal point. Harbhajan bemoaned how the art has been diluted. \u201cSpinners are supposed to spin the ball,\u201d he said bluntly. \u201cIf you don\u2019t spin it, you make life easy for batters. Whether it\u2019s T20 or Tests, the basics don\u2019t change.\u201dHe spoke about mindset as much as mechanics, about how spinners need courage because they can\u2019t bowl bouncers or yorkers. Their only weapon, he insisted, is deception: in the air, off the pitch. \u201cAap ke haath se ball aadha chaand banake neeche girna chahiye<\/span>,\u201d he stressed.Would those attributes help if he bowled at Vaibhav Sooryavanshi? \u201cMy attitude will. I will try to get him first ball. Not save myself and bowl flat. My aggression may have landed me in trouble, but that is the only way I know,\u201d he stressed.The topic veered quickly to another child prodigy turned legend. Birthday boy Tendulkar. Harbhajan spoke of him not as a distant icon but as a senior teammate and brother. Of someone disciplined and endlessly available. \u201cOn the field he was the great Tendulkar,\u201d Harbhajan said and added with a wicked smile, \u201cbut in the dressing room, he was always Paaji, who gave juniors like me and Zaheer Khan the liberty to throw him into a jacuzzi in New Zealand after winning a Test in 2009.\u201dThe conversation shifted briefly to the laws of the game and whether he would change them to have a better balance between bat and ball. \u201cLike a bowler is banned from bowling after two beamers, I want batters banned after two sixes,\u201d Harbhajan joked.He quickly got serious, though. \u201cThe law is not the problem,\u201d he said. \u201cWickets are. If you prepare good wickets, the balance comes naturally.\u201d He cited spells like Mohammed Shami in Lucknow for LSG vs RR and the MI-CSK game, where quality spinners like Akeal Hosein and Noor Ahmad shaped outcomes. \u201cThe best T20 matches are often games where 160 or 170 gets defended,\u201d he felt.At the history-soaked Brabourne, the message was clear: formats may change, leagues will mushroom, but only cricketers with patience, skill and courage to challenge the game will rule.<\/div>\n