NEW DELHI, Sept 19: Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh wants the focus firmly on his bowling and not his behaviour when the home test series against Australia starts on Oct. 9.

“Yes, I’m sick of all the bad-boy crap,” he told Hindustan Times on Friday ahead of the four-test series.

“I’ve no interest in hearing about how controversies follow me wherever I go,” he said. “I’m going to stay away from all that.”

He added: “It’s always important to learn from your mistakes. I’ve learnt my lessons, good and bad, the good things teach you stuff as well.”

India will rely heavily on the 28-year-old, their second most successful test spinner, who is nine short of taking 300 wickets, while hoping he would avoid the kind of drama that marred their previous trip Down Under.

India threatened to pull out of the series in January after Harbhajan was initially found guilty of racially abusing all rounder Andrew Symonds in the acrimonious second test in Sydney.

A standoff between the teams was ended after the charge was downgraded on appeal to using abusive language and he let off with a fine. Australia won the series 2-1.

The Indian board then suspended Harbhajan for five one-dayers in May for slapping fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth during a domestic Twenty20 league match.

“Everybody goes through lots of drama, and yes, you make mistakes and learn from them,” he said. “If I didn’t make mistakes, I would be god, right?

He said skipper Ricky Ponting, returning after wrist surgery, posed a big challenge, despite the premier batsman’s modest record in India.

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed that (Ponting) will struggle some more and keep his India record intact. Otherwise, he is such a strong player that if he gets going, he just keeps going.”

Harbhajan dismissed him repeatedly to capture 32 wickets and spark a stunning comeback 2-1 home series win in 2001.

However, Australia won in 2004 to claim their first series in India for 35 years before retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home in January.

“To be honest, they are a very good side, they’ve simply won everywhere,” he said. “I play with a lot of passion always, the difference with the Australians is that they put a lot of challenges ahead of one when they play.

“I love challenges and I always want to do well against Australia, because if you do manage something special, you know you’ve done so against the best team in the world.”—Reuters