Harbhajan Singh names 'King Of Cricket' and it is NOT Sachin Tendulkar, fans left stunned

India's veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is all set to return to the Indian Premier League as he was picked up by the Kolkata Knight Riders team ahead of the 14th season. The bowler has been a part of several historic victories for India and has served the national team for several years now. The 40-year-old has shared the dressing room with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli. This is why many fans were taking by surprise when the player recently named the 'King Of Cricket'.

Harbhajan Singh hails himself as the 'King of Cricket'

The spinner's meteoric rise in international came after the epic India vs Australia Test series of 2001, where the youngster rattled the mighty Aussies with his exemplary display of spin bowling. Harbhajan Singh claimed 32 wickets in the three-match series. Australia had a fabulous start to their campaign as they earned a comprehensive victory in the Test series opener in Mumbai. 

They also seemed to have an upper hand as they had enforced the follow-on against India in the subsequent fixture at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. The hosts staged a miraculous comeback in the game and register a momentous win despite having their backs onto the walls. It is worth mentioning that it was in this particular game that Harbhajan Singh became the first Indian cricketer to claim a hat-trick in Test matches. Singh dismissed Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne in three successive deliveries to achieve the significant feat. 

The player took to his Twitter account to share his fabulous stats from the tour. Along with his numbers, he also reckoned that 'Singh is always King'. The star spinner has made it clear that he is certainly not done. The player will don the KKR's purple jersey for the first time in his career and will play under Eoin Morgan in the upcoming season of the cash-rich league alongside fellow spinners Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy. 

However, it left fans shocked as many of them opted to have fun at Harbhajan's expense by bringing up his past 'friendship' with Shahid Afridi -

KKR team 2021

KKR team 2021: Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Tim Seifert, Shakib Al Hasan, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Sheldon Jackson, Pawan Negi, Venkatesh Iyer, Vaibhav Arora, Ben Cutting. 

When Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh were slammed for supporting Shahid Afridi 

Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh had pledged their support to Shahid Afridi's charity organisation last year during the coronavirus pandemic, which had irked people in India, and Twitterati had slammed them for their stance. Fans were left unimpressed as Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh campaigned for Shahid Afridi's organization, whereas the former Pakistan captain has been very vocal about his views on Kashmir. After Shahid Afridi's hateful comments against India, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh had vouched to cut ties with the ex-Pakistani cricketer.

Image source: Harbhajan Singh Instagram