Harbhajan last played for the national team in August last year and was dropped after some lacklustre performances. He opted to play for Essex in the County Championship in England in a bid to regain his form and was finally awarded with a call up.
"It is special. It is good to be back in the team. It is another opportunity to do well. I have played for so many years but that has all gone. I need to start fresh. I am very excited to be part of the team," Harbhajan said.
Harbhajan was included in team India's squads for the T20 World Cup to be held in Sri Lanka and the home T20 series against New Zealand. The 32 year old admitted that it has been very hard for him as it is harder to make a comeback than make a debut.
"Nobody would like to be out of the team but as Rahul (Dravid) mentioned it is difficult to make comebacks than playing first time for India. It is much more difficult for a guy like me who has played for 12 years, had a very successful career and then suddenly you are out of the team.
"Then, you have to work even harder and you have to compete with yourself to do even better. Having already set some standards through your various performances you are competing with yourself. You have to go one step further now. For that, you have to work even harder, remain more focused and start from the scratch."
Harbhajan added that despite working extremely hard to get back to form he has been struggling to do so due to injuries.
"You work even harder but nothing clicked -- I tried everything but either I was getting injured or I was not getting the rewards. Even your failure and your success cannot be taken for granted. When you are going through a good patch you tend to ignore certain things. It could be your sleeping habits, it could be waking up at 6 am and going for a jog, it could be a gym session.
"When you come out of the team, you get injured or if you are not doing that well; then you realise these are the things I am missing," Harbhajan insisted.
The off-spinner summed up by saying now now he would like to enjoy the game. "I just want to go and enjoy the game because I felt during the time out I had forgotten to enjoy the game. Even in the IPL I was under pressure which came out of my own expectations. I was feeling like: I need to lead the side well, I need to perform well to comeback into the side. So that probably affected my chances."
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