When Jasprit Bumrah registered his hat-trick in the second Test against West Indies, he became the third Indian to achieve this feat. It was not surprising then, that the other two hat-tricks by Indians were also fondly remembered.
Both Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan, the two men holding the same distinction as Bumrah, were quick to congratulate the latter on his achievement. Videos of the other two hat-tricks – of Harbhajan against Australian in 2001 and Pathan against Pakistan in 2006 – began circulating on Twitter.
Adam Gilchrist, the great former Aussie cricketer who was the second batsman dismissed by Bhajji in his hat-trick pointed out the fact that he was wrongly given out by the umpire as the ball had pitched way outside the leg stump. His tweet simply read: "No DRS" with a crying emoji next to it.
The Tweet by Gilchrist was put out on September 1. Three days later, on September 4, suddenly, in the evening, Harbhajan decided to come up with a strongly-worded response to it.
In a tweet that seems more ill-humoured than good, he writes: "U think u would have survived for long if not first ball ? Stop crying over these things mate. Thought u would talk sense after ur playing days.. but few things never change u r the prime example of that. Always crying"
It is hard to understand why Harbhajan lost his cool. The fact that Gilchrist had a crying emoji next to the text of his tweet proves that he was making a light-hearted comment. Besides, if the umpire had not given a wrong decision, we don't know what would have happened but for certain, Bhajji would have been denied a hat-trick.
Also, considering that in the previous Test, Gilly had smashed a magnificent hundred on a square turner against a three-men spin bowling attack proves that his failure in this innings wasn't guaranteed, as Harbhajan would like us to believe. In fact, in the very same innings in which the 'Turbanator' got his hat-trick, Australia went on to bat for a long time afterwards as Steve Waugh shepherded the tail and took his team to a score of 400+.
It is also interesting to see the responses that have come so far to this tweet. Rather than having the backing of Indian fans, most users are disagreeing with the tone adopted by the Indian off-spinner and pointing out the humourous nature of Gilchrist's tweet.
Over the years, Harbhajan has been involved in spats with Australian cricketers. The infamous Sydney Test saw the Australian team accusing the offie of calling Andrew Symonds 'Monkey' – a charge from which he was exonerated.
Still, it is very mysterious that all of a sudden, three days later, Harbhajan decided to launch into this tirade. We have no clue what triggered it.
