Do you know Harbhajan Singh has a batting world record to his name in test cricket?

As Harbhajan Singh has retired from international cricket, there have been a lot of talks about his career accomplishments and there is plenty to talk about as well because Harbhajan was one of the greatest servants of Indian cricket with the ball in all three formats of the game.

But, very few people know that Harbhajan actually holds a world record with the bat as well in test match cricket. When the New Zealand cricket team toured India for a Test series in 2010, Harbhajan scored back to back hundreds in two consecutive innings batting at no. 8.

By doing so, Harbhajan became the only player in test match history to score two consecutive hundreds batting at no. 8. A lot of players have scored hundreds batting at no. 8 in test cricket, but nobody has done so in consecutive innings batting at that position.

Both those hundreds, the first one in Ahmedabad and the second one in Hyderabad, came against a decent Kiwi attack and at a time when India were in a slight spot of bother.

DYK?
Harbhajan Singh is the only player in Test cricket history to make centuries in successive innings while batting at #8. He achieved this against New Zealand in Nov 2010 – a match saving 115 at Ahmedabad and 111* at Hyderabad.

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) December 24, 2021

Harbhajan Singh was a very handy batsman down the order

Harbhajan Singh might have been an off-spin bowler primarily, but he was very handy with the bat as well, particularly lower down the order. He scored more than 2000 runs for India in test cricket and apart from the two consecutive hundreds that he scored against New Zealand, he also scored 9 half-centuries in the longest format of the game.

Many experts, during Harbhajan’s career, believed that he could bat slightly up the order as well for India, particularly in white-ball cricket because of his ability to play the big shots. He was a fairly good timer of the ball, despite being a lower-order batsman.

Even for his IPL team Mumbai Indians, Harbhajan played quite a few cameos whenever he got his opportunities with the bat, but because of his significant contributions with the ball, his batting took a back seat and never got talked about as much.