MELBOURNE, Dec 28: Spin bowler Harbhajan Singh says he has shouldered unrealistic expectations since his career-high achievements during India’s famed home series win over Australia in 2001.

The finger-spinner made the comments after putting in his best bowling performance in Australia with 3-101 off 26 overs during the third day of the first Test here Friday.

Harbhajan’s performance on Friday made him only the fourth Indian bowler to pass 250 Test wickets.

He now has 251 wickets and lies fourth all-time in Indian cricket, behind team-mate Anil Kumble (591), Kapil Dev (434) and Bishen Bedi (266).

India have to defy Test history and score 493 more runs to beat Australia over the two remaining days of the Boxing Day Test.

Harbhajan’s Test career high point was his 32 wickets at 17.03 in the three-match home series against Australia in 2001, a remarkable feat he says he has struggled to repeat during his career.

“From the time I took those 32 wickets, whenever I didn’t get wickets, people expected me to do the same thing. It’s not easy to do things like that.

It happens once or twice in a lifetime,” the 27-year-old said.

“It’s good to have expectations but you can’t really do anything about it, you just go and try to bowl well for your team.

“I’ve played enough cricket now and I know how to handle things in the tough conditions. I was very raw when I came in to play in 2001 — young and all over the place.

“There wasn’t that much responsibility for me then and things have now changed and there is a lot of responsibility not just in bowling and batting, but also off the field.”

Harbhajan captured the big wickets of Matthew Hayden (47), Ricky Ponting (3) and Adam Gilchrist (35) to make Friday a special day. He claimed his 250th wicket with the dismissal of world cricket’s No.1-rated batsman Ponting for the sixth time.—AFP