Averages 44 in 102 Tests (6446 runs).
Away average is 43.
Averages 49 in matches won (35). 49 in matches won abroad too (15).
Has won 2 MoM awards in matches India has won (3 won in all).
Average against Australia is 55. In Australia 54 (the strongest team of his era).
Batting strike rate is 49.
Made single figures scores in just 16% of his 169 innings which is the lowest rate on this list. However, he has the highest rate of scores of 25 and below (51%), which suggests a wasteful throwing away of starts.
Away average is 43.
Averages 49 in matches won (35). 49 in matches won abroad too (15).
Has won 2 MoM awards in matches India has won (3 won in all).
Average against Australia is 55. In Australia 54 (the strongest team of his era).
Batting strike rate is 49.
Made single figures scores in just 16% of his 169 innings which is the lowest rate on this list. However, he has the highest rate of scores of 25 and below (51%), which suggests a wasteful throwing away of starts.
At the end of his career, VVS Laxman might look back and think he has under-achieved. For someone as naturally gifted as him and with no obvious weakness (like the short-pitched ball) he should have been higher on this list. Still, his performances against the best team of his era (including a couple of unforgettable innings played under severe pressure) assure him immortality and suggest a warming up to the highest challenges. For someone who batted from no. 1 to no. 8 in the batting order through his career, he probably was somewhat unfortunate in not inhabiting the no. 3 batting position more often than he did (just 32 of his 169 innings) because it is here that he seemed to belong more than anywhere else (interestingly, his strike rate at no. 3 and no. 4 are higher than in any other batting position). Has played more than a few innings under pressure and often delivered runs when his team has needed them the most. His propensity to get himself out despite getting a start (as the stats show, he got them more often than most) is the major black mark in his career - which can still change course. On the talent stakes, many rate Laxman alongside Tendulkar; it is a pity he doesn't have the latter's hunger for runs. The other significant aspect of his batting is aesthetics - Laxman's wrist-propelled artistry, which gives him the flexibility to hit the ball in any part of the ground regardless of its original direction. And make bowlers wonder if the laws of Geometry apply to him.
281 vs Australia, Kolkata 2001.
| The greatest Test innings played by an Indian batsman. Australia had won 16 tests in a row (a world record) including the first one in Mumbai. In this, the second of a three test series, Aussies had scored 445, dismissed the Indians for 171 and reduced them to 52 for 1 as they followed on, on and dismissed India for 171 and reduced them to 52 for 1 as they followed on, on the third day. In walked VVS Laxman | at no. 3, replacing Rahul Dravid at this position who seemed in poor form. He couldn't have known then that he would bat for over ten hours, including the entire fourth day, scoring 281 at a strike rate of 62 with 44 boundaries. He couldn't have known that his ally would be the very man he had replaced and he certainly couldn't have known that his captain Ganguly would have the audacity of thinking of victory at the | end of the next day's play. And he wouldn't have known that Harbhajan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar would be the ones to bowl India to its greatest Test victory just two afternoons later and Indian cricket would never be the same. No, when he took guard in the 17th over of that innings (with 161 still to go, as it turned out), he was no doubt just thinking of the next ball. |
69* and 74 vs West Indies, Port-of-Spain 2002.
| India's first Test victory in the West Indies in 32 years and Laxman was MoM with two classy knocks. Tendulkar (117) and Dravid (68) gave him company in the first innings whilst he produced an unbeaten 69 (with 11 | fours). In the second innings, India was 56-4 when Ganguly (75* off 227 balls) and Laxman (74 off 157 balls) put on 149 and changed the match. The bowlers shared the wickets fairly evenly and together Ganguly's team | produced its first overseas match triumph. Laxman's consistency here in critical situations is a great pointer to what he could have done on a regular basis for India, but sadly didn't. |
148 vs Australia, Adelaide 2003.
| First test a draw. Second test - Australia score 556 and reduce India to 85 for 4. VVS Laxman comes out to join Rahul Dravid. And lightening strikes twice. Two and a half years after their epic partnership in Kolkata, they do it again, only their roles are reversed this time. | They bat together for 5 and a half hours, Laxman scores 148 in 282 balls, Dravid a classic 233 and they add 303. The Australian crowd generously applaud his unique wrist-play as he repeatedly plays off-stump balls to mid-wicket and cover-drives inside | out from the leg at times. More surprises are to follow as Australia loses eventually, but this Dravid-Laxman encore remains the most celebrated one in Indian cricket. |
69 vs Australia, Mumbai 2004.
| India, dismissed for 104 in the first innings and trailing by 99 in this low scoring match on a viciously turning pitch, is 14-2 in the second innings. Tendulkar has just joined Laxman; the crowd dismayed at a possible 3-0 series defeat, is low-key. How do they get out of this hole? Then after a quiet period - Laxman starts a stunning | counter-attack and Tendulkar takes over. Eventually, maybe just 91 in 26 overs but in the context of the match, it makes everyone wonder where this spirit was in the series that had just gone by. Brilliant skill on show, fearlessly taking chances that all seem to be coming off. Then - Tendulkar gets out at 105 (with the lead just 6) but | Laxman bats on for almost 50 runs more, taking control. Astonishingly, the 107 lead India garner by the end is enough as Australia is shot out for 93, inexplicably, regardless of the state of the pitch. That surge of adrenalin from India's two most naturally gifted batsmen perhaps turned the tide irreversibly. |
104* and 67* vs New Zealand, Mohali 2003.
| The second match in that thoughtless oddity - the 2-Test series. Still 0-0. New Zealand won the toss and piled up their highest ever overseas score after batting for two and a half days - 630-6. But Sehwag showed no signs of being tired as he hammered a rapidfire 128* with India 203 for 1 at the end of the 3rd day. Foregone conclusion on a dead track? Not quite. Next morning, the Kiwis fought back with 2 quick wickets. Laxman came in at 218-3 and stabilised things with Tendulkar who finally | departed at 330 for 55. A well-set Laxman went about trying to get to the 101 needed to avoid the follow-on, and he was in a different mode than usual - watchful and cautious. Unfortunately, he got little support at the other end. Wickets kept falling regularly, and even his assured hand fell 6 runs short - with him unbeaten on 104 (at a very unusual strike rate of 40 for him). Out came India again and within an hour lost Sehwag, Dravid and Tendulkar as Tuffy turned unlikely tormentor. | 18-3 when Laxman walked in after just about an hour's break from the middle. With Chopra he laid anchor, very uncharacteristically curbing his strokeplay for the second time in the match. His unbeaten 67 at an emphatically atypical strike rate of 37 saved his team some serious blushes and a highly demoralising series defeat before a tour of Australia (which may not have turned out quite as memorable as it did if they'd lost their confidence here). |
HONOURABLE MENTION:
167 vs Australia, Sydney 2000.
| Laxman's most spectacular innings doesn't make the main list simply because it had little match significance. India were 0-2 down and in the last test were coming out to bat in the second innings, trailing by 402. As VVS Laxman, the makeshift opener, walked out to take the first ball of the innings, he was thinking of his career that was about to end. He was convinced he wouldn't play for India after this; he had failed too many times and despite | the obvious evidence that he wasn't suited to open, he wasn't being fitted in the middle-order where he belonged. So, he decided to just cut loose and hope for some kind of catharsis perhaps - a short-term balm for the bitter disappointment he felt at his Test career terminating (after just 17 Tests). What followed was as magnificent as it was unlikely. Shot after shot sped to the boundary, while wickets kept falling at the other end. It didn't matter if it was | McGrath, Fleming, Lee or Warne, this was VVS Laxman's day. He was 8th out for 167 off 198 balls. India was all out for 261 (in just 58 overs), and Laxman had hit more boundaries in the innings (27) than anyone had scored runs (the next highest score was 25). India still lost by an innings and then some but VVS Laxman had finally established himself - one of the best things that ever happened to Indian cricket. |
