Harbahajan Singh on Thursday opened the bowling with Zaheer Khan. This provided the rare instance of a spinner opening the bowling for India.
A regular scene in Indian cricket in the seventies, this has not happened atleast for quite some time. In fact the last time a spinner opened for India was Anil Kumble against South Africa at Bangalore in 1999-00.
The following table lists the instances of a spinner/non-regular bowler opening the bowling for India in a Test since Kapil Dev's made his debut in 1978.
| Bowler 1 | Bowler 2 | Opponent | Venue | Season | Remarks |
| Kapil Dev | M Amarnath | Pakistan | Faisalabad | 1978-79 | Kapil's debut Test |
| Kapil Dev | SM Gavaskar | Pakistan | Lahore | 1978-79 | |
| Kapil Dev | DR Doshi | Australia | Melbourne | 1980-81 | Despite presence of Karsan Ghavri |
| Kapil Dev | SM Patil | New Zealand | Auckland | 1980-81 | |
| Kapil Dev | RJ Shastri | West Indies | Bombay | 1983-84 | |
| Kapil Dev | M Amarnath | England | Kanpur | 1984-85 | |
| Kapil Dev | RJ Shastri | Australia | Sydney | 1985-86 | Despite presence of Chetan Sharma |
| Kapil Dev | M Amarnath | Pakistan | Jaipur | 1986-87 | |
| Kapil Dev | M Amarnath | Pakistan | Ahmedabad | 1986-87 | |
| Kapil Dev | M Amarnath | West Indies | Madras | 1987-88 | Hirwani's debut Test |
| Kapil Dev | Arshad Ayub | New Zealand | Bangalore | 1988-89 | |
| MM Prabhakar | A Kumble | England | Madras | 1992-93 | Despite presence of Kapil Dev |
| J Srinath | SC Ganguly | Australia | Calcutta | 1997-98 | |
| Harvinder Singh | SC Ganguly | Australia | Bangalore | 1997-98 | |
| J Srinath | SC Ganguly | New Zealand | Kanpur | 1999-00 | |
| J Srinath | A Kumble | South Africa | Bangalore | 1999-00 | |
| Zaheer Khan | SC Ganguly | Australia | Madras | 2000-01 | |
| J Srinath | SC Ganguly | England | Bangalore | 2001-02 | |
| Zaheer Khan | Harbhajan Singh | Australia | Mumbai (WS) | 2004-05 |