'Nothing to do with the stadium': Harbhajan Singh shuts down Ahmedabad 'panauti' talk

Ahmedabad, India – Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has categorically rejected suggestions that the Narendra Modi Stadium carries any jinx for the national side, insisting that results hinge on performance, not venue mythology. The debate flared anew after India’s 2023 World Cup final loss to Australia on the same ground, but Harbhajan said the better team won that night, not the better stadium.

“When two good teams play against each other, one will obviously lose,” Harbhajan told India Today. “Australia were the better team on that particular day. If you put your right foot forward from ball one, you will get the results. Whatever people used to think, that this ground is a ‘panauti’ or whatsoever I have heard on social media, that is done and dusted now.”

Drawing a parallel, Harbhajan recalled how Eden Gardens once carried a similar stigma before India’s fortunes there improved. “Lot of people talk about Eden Gardens as well. Eden didn’t have the best of records, but somewhere down the line it changed. Luckily, in our era, we managed to do that,” he said, adding that such narratives are “the mindset of the people who have never played cricket.”

Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s veteran off-spinner, echoed the sentiment on his show Ash ki Baat ahead of the Men in Blue’s T20 World Cup final against New Zealand. “You can lose a game at a venue and win the next one. What is there in this? We have won a lot of games in that stadium. Don’t make a stadium like this taboo,” Ashwin urged fans. He expressed confidence that the current squad would not be derailed by superstition. “I don’t think it should come into the way… now, I don’t think the team will be thinking on those lines.”

With the spotlight again on the Narendra Modi Stadium, both spin legends have delivered the same message: the pitch does not play favourites; players do.