Sport | Cricket
The unsung hero
His best efforts have always come with India desperately needing the runs. His batting has often been instrumental in guiding the team to victory against heavyweight opponents in Test cricket.
- By K.R. Nayar, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:41 January 23, 2008
Dubai: His best efforts have always come with India desperately needing the runs. His batting has often been instrumental in guiding the team to victory against heavyweight opponents in Test cricket.
Yet, Vangipurappu Venkata Sai (VVS) Laxman is one batsman whose struggle to retain his place in the team is a never-ending saga.
Truth is stranger than fiction!
Despite maintaining an average of 51.76 against Australia - the world's No 1 team - Laxman has often found himself on the wrong side of the fence when it comes to team selection. It's quite a mystery that his best just does not seem to be enough to impress upon the selectors.
Is Laxman a victim of neglect, given the fact that he hails from the state of Hyderabad, which does not have a strong voice in Indian cricket?
Right from his debut Test, Laxman has proved to be a match winner.
Playing against the strong Hansie Cronje-led South African side in 1996 in Ahmedabad, Laxman top scored with an invaluable 51 in the second innings to help India win by 64 runs.
Though essentially a middle-order batsman, the selectors have got him to bat at almost every position, including that of an opener. When Australia came to India in 1999, he was asked to open the innings with Navjot Sidhu and he cracked a brilliant 95 in Kolkata (then Calcutta) to set the stage for a huge total and beat Australia by an-innings-and-219 runs.
Fighting innings
Laxman opened the innings even on the hard and bouncy wickets of Australia during the 2000 tour. He hit a fighting 167 in an Indian second-innings total of 261 to delay Australia's innings-and-141-run win.
But Laxman has produced his best in the No 6 position. He has scored 2,157 runs in that position for an average of 47.93, with 4 centuries and 14 half centuries. Yet he was never given a fixed position.
The greatness of a player often lies in his ability to bat not only on home wickets, but also on the unfamiliar foreign tracks. Laxman has averaged 45.70 at home and 43.55 abroad. Seven out of his 12 centuries were scored abroad. Always soft-spoken, he did question on being dropped for a tour to Bangladesh last year: "Why do my performances get forgotten so quickly? They don't even care that even I need their support to stay in the team."
What is also noteworthy is that on 14 occasions when he scored over 50 runs in a Test, India went on to register a win.
It was his epic knock of 281 in March 2001 that helped India record a historic 171-run win over Australia in the Kolkata Test. This knock is still regarded as one of the greatest innings by an Indian batsman.
Laxman sparkled in one of the most closely-fought victories over Australia. In the 2001 Chepauk Test in Chennai, Laxman hit 65 in the first innings and a classic 66 in the second innings to guide India to a nail-biting two-wicket win.
At Port of Spain, against the West Indies, he hit an unbeaten 69 in the first innings and a 74 in the second to guide India to a 37-run victory. His 148 in Adelaide in December 2003 helped India beat Australia by 4 wickets.
It remains a mystery as to why a batsman with an average of 44.40 gets ignored so easily. His average of over 50 against Australia, New Zealand and the West Indies and 43 against Pakistan scream for justice.
The Indian selectors are ever so quick to point out his poor fielding as his biggest drawback. But Laxman is among the best slip fielders in the world and is now just five short of the 100 mark.
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