Harbhajan holds key for India, says Wasim Akram

KARACHI (AFP) - Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh holds the key for India in their series against world champions Australia, former Pakistan great Wasim Akram said on Tuesday.
India start as favourites in the four-match series which begins with the first Test at Bangalore on Thursday and Akram said that first encounter would set the tone for the matches to come.
"I think Harbhajan holds the key for India," Akram, who led Pakistan to victory in India in 1999, told AFP.
"India surely have the edge with their quality spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan and it will be a matter of how the Australians play these two, right from the first Test."
Akram said Harbhajan's aggression made him a match-winner.
"I like the way he bowls, with aggression and cunning, and those have paid dividends for him. He has tamed world's best batsman, Ricky Ponting, and can again plague the Australian master," Wasim said.
Ponting, rated among the top three batsmen in the world, has a meagre tally of 172 runs in 14 Test innings with a disappointing average of 12.28 on Indian soil.
Of his 14 innings, Ponting fell 13 times to spinners with Harbhajan dismissing him five times during India's 2-1 triumph in 2001.Akram said India versus Australia had become the "mother of all series".
"The way India have performed against Australia, beating them at Adelaide in 2004 and then at Perth last year, has made the India-Australia series more high profile than even the Ashes," he said.