Harbhajan raring to go in New Zealand

India's offspinner Harbhajan Singh, who will miss out on the forthcoming tour of Sri Lanka after picking up a hamstring injury, expects to come back fitter for the team's next assignment, in New Zealand.

Harbhajan, 28, is currently in Johannesburg, where he has been undergoing medical supervision for the last 10 days after suffering a tear in the tendon joining his hamstring and groin. He is, however, scheduled to return to India on Tuesday night.

"I was fit enough to play without a break in any form of the game in the last two years and don't see any reasons why it would be any different for New Zealand," Harbhajan told PTI. "More so when I have taken the required medical help in South Africa.

"It was first detected in a scan during the tour of South Africa in 2006," said Harbhajan. "It was then seen only as an inflammation. However, in Australia last year, another scan showed a little tear. The doctors then advised me to keep on playing and treat it whenever there was a long break from international engagements," he said.

With India's tour of Pakistan, scheduled early in the year, called off, the team seemingly had no international commitments for a long duration and Harbhajan felt it was the best opportunity to deal with the issue.

"I presently sensed a two-month window of no cricket in India's international engagements and duly parked myself in South Africa for treatment," he said. "Since then the Sri Lanka tour materialised and I could do little."

However, Harbhajan wasn't required to endure an operation to get rid of the injury. "Fortunately, I wasn't required to go through the surgeon's knife," he said. "There is a medical process through which your own blood is extracted and injected with white cells. Quite a few rugby players in South Africa have used this method of treatment. Even Graeme Smith, the South African captain, used this process to recover from his injury."

Harbhajan was a key figure in the squad during India's previous tour of Sri Lanka in July-August last year. He was the highest wicket-taker for India in the Tests with 16 wickets from three matches at 28.12, followed by a slightly disappointing ODI series with six wickets from four matches at 18.83.

This time around, India are scheduled to play five ODIs and a Twenty international on the tour, to be played out between January 28 and February 10.

India's tour of New Zealand begins soon afterwards, with the team arriving on February 20 for two Twenty20 internationals, five ODIs and three Tests.