Brisbane: Former Indian pacer Ajit Agarkar has said that spinner Harbhajan Singh"s resolve to change his 'bad boy' image doesn"t mean that the upcoming series against the Aussies would lack fire.

He named Harbhajan as Australia's danger man. "He's got a phenomenal record in India, especially against the Aussies," he said.

Earlier this year, Harbhajan had been caught in a fiery battle with Aussie batsman Andrew Symonds, after he called the latter a monkey, which led to a three-Test ban on him. The verbal feud between the two had both countries on a knife's edge, reported The Age.

Ahead of the series against Australia, Harbhajan said that he was sick of his bad boy image. “I'm sick of all the bad boy crap, I've no interest in hearing about how controversies follow me wherever I go. I'm going to stay away from all that," said Singh on the eve of India's home Test series against Australia.

Agarkar said that Singh's comments did not mean the Test series, starting early next month, would be any less intense. “I only know about Andrew from what I've read in the papers. Maybe Harbhajan has been carrying that bad boy tag for too long and wants to improve that a little bit. Hopefully he doesn't want to get into as many controversies as he has in the past and just concentrate on his cricket," said Agarkar.

 Without the likes of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Damien Martyn, Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist - and containing just four players who've played Test cricket in India – India fancies the chances to win the series.

ANI

 
 
 

Tags: india-autralia 2008, australian tour of india, test series, ajit agarkar, harbhajan singh.