Legendary Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh applauded India captain Shubman Gill for his leadership ahead of the first Test against Sri Lanka. The two-match away Test series begins on Saturday, August 15, at Galle. Shubman Gill has not had great success as captain, with a challenging start to his tenure. However, Harbhajan Singh rated him highly for the way he led in his very first series as Test captain in England as well.

“Coming to Gill not having had a lot of success, I feel his credit, his mettle, was seen in his captaincy in England. It was a small example of what he can do as a captain, a leader, and a batter. He scored more runs than anybody. The way the team performed there and the mindset, I think I rate him up because of that. It looked like the team was committed. A high or low patch will keep coming, but overall, I think he is someone who’s got a very good cricket brain and is a top cricketer,” he said in an interview with Sports Now Hindi.

Meanwhile, the relationship between him and S Sreesanth has been bitter over the years after the infamous ‘slapgate’ incident in the Indian Premier League (IPL) happened in 2008. They did not speak to each other for a very long time. However, just when things seemed to be getting better, it got worse once again after Harbhajan Singh shot an advertisement that reopened old wounds as well. In a recent interaction, the veteran spinner revealed that he would like to have S Sreesanth as his roommate, as he believes that they both can solve a lot of their problems if they were in the same room.

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“If both of us are in the same room, a lot of things will get solved. I see it from that perspective. You can pick him as my roommate. I have no problems,” Harbhajan said in an interview with PTI.

Earlier, during an interaction, S Sreesanth was shown an old photograph of him and Harbhajan Singh dressed in boxing gear and the former pacer gave a direct challenge to Harbhajan and said that he is ready to settle things in a boxing ring.

“This same scene, do you have the guts? Do you have the guts to come into the ring with me? Can you sign and come? Can you? I am asking him. Do you have the guts to come into the ring with me? Wearing this same gloves… This is not acting, I am smiling. You are not even smiling, I don’t know what you are doing. Let’s see. This is an open challenge,” Sreesanth said.

“I am currently in the Bear Knuckle Fight League, and I am also one of the main sponsors of Conor McGregor’s video; one of my good friends sponsored it, so the promotion is also done. I am challenging you, Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh),” he again added.