Last Update: The smiling assassin

Okay, I swear I am done with articles about VVS Laxman and just in time, too, as the next Test is starting in about 24 hours. (See the Last Update below for the latest update).

Last Update: Finally, Harsha Bhogle weighs in on a fellow Hyderabadi. Many years ago, Harsha wrote the only authorized biography of Mohammad Azharuddin. Maybe someday soon he will write one about VVS Laxman. Until then, we'll have to catch snippets of Harsha's views on Laxman through his articles on CricInfo. Here's his latest offering.

For a major part of his career he has batted at No. 6. It means the tail is a stone's throw away. It means the boundary riders are out for him, offering him the single to attack the rest. It means he stays not-out more often; once every sixth innings almost, compared to about one in 10 for Tendulkar and one in nine for Dravid. You might argue it boosts his average but the innings rarely go as far as they might have gone. Hence, only 16 centuries. Hence, too, the change in batting style; from a free-stroking player to someone who must guard his wicket and prolong the innings. Number six is a difficult position to bat in if you are a batsman who doesn't bowl because your numbers rarely look as good as those of the men who precede you.

Down in Australia, they think we are daft but we have never bestowed on him the stature we have with Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, and more lately with Sehwag.

That is why he has had to walk the selection tightrope far too often for a player of his ability. That is why many believe he has been underrated. Down in Australia they think we are daft, but we have never bestowed on him the stature we have on Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, and more lately Sehwag. And so, every time there was a new kid on the block, the attention shifted towards Laxman. And yet in the last two years (from January 1, 2009, to be precise), he has scored a century every four Tests and averages 80.

Update: Two more articles on Laxman's role in the Mohali Test have come up that need mentioning. (There will be one last update tomorrow when Harsha Bhogle's column on CricInfo comes up, too).



First, Mirhir Sharma (Indian Express) describes the long road taken by him, Laxman, and India towards respectability in the Test arena and VVS's big role in it.

Perhaps you needed to have survived the Azhar years to truly value the fightback, the high second-innings average, the back-to-the-wall defiance. For those who remember vividly the long period when all we had was individual brilliance in rubbers where the team seemed hopelessly outmatched throughout — remember Tendulkar at Perth in 1992, in the last, lost Test of a 0-4 series? — the miracles that Laxman can perform for a team struggling on the back foot, transmuting certain defeat into inevitable victory, remain the highest form of sport.

Second, Peter Roebuck comes forth in his inimitable style for CricInfo. Read it in its entirety. Here's a snippet:

Laxman was not to be denied. In full flight he is a hard man to stop. He stood at square leg as the appeal was turned down, stood again as the next ball flew from pad towards long leg, urged both partners to run, and raised his arms as, finally, the deed was done. It was a thrilling end to a tight match. India had found their champion. Laxman had confirmed his standing in the game. His career has been a compelling tale of greatness remaining locked away in the mind till the call comes and then emerging and laying waste before retreating back into its shell. As far as cricket is concerned Laxman is a warrior by instinct and a man of peace by manner. The conflict has made his career fascinating and frustrating. His genius is peculiar and requires the most particular conditions. His greatness lies in the fact that those conditions are the toughest not the easiest. He is an artist whose strength lies not in his artistry but in his competitive spirit.

Update: As I expected, Sambit Bal had something to say about VVS. There are some paragraphs that indicate how good a writer Bal is but this piece is not one of his best, which is a pity, considering the subject matter. After a strong start, it meanders around and the finish is abrupt and does not tie in very well with the theme of the write-up.

To bat at the international level takes considerable skill; to marshal the trickiest of fourth-innings chases in the company of the tail requires nerves of steel. That's a rare and priceless quality. The splendour and the gorgeousness of his batting sometimes distract Laxman's admirers from the mental strength that is such a big part of his game. It isn't a coincidence that he is part of a rare and small group of batsmen whose second-innings average is higher than their first.

Update, part 2: Anand Vasu does a far better job of attempting to figure out the essence of the man in his tribute in the Hindustan Times.

If you’re a statistician, you should stop reading this right now. You’re likely to point to 7490 Test runs and list all those who have made so many more. You’ll underline 16 centuries, and show us batsmen who have comfortably doubled that mark. That, even on a day when he engineered one of Indian cricket’s greatest wins, VVS Laxman was not adjudged Man-of-the-Match, tells you the standards by which the world judges this great player.

(...) There are few things more virtuous than giving joy without expecting anything in return, and Laxman has done this all his life. Lesser cricketers than him routinely walk away with giant endorsement deals. Poorer fielders than him occupy spots in limited-overs teams. While other cricketers fight amongst themselves to land bigger IPL contracts, Laxman voluntarily - at great personal cost — gave up his status as icon player, thereby freeing up money for the Deccan Chargers to build their team.

All his cricketing life, Laxman has given, without complaint, and when we ask for more, he just digs deeper, and produces. On Tuesday, a special player with a unique talent briefly made the lives of millions of ordinary people slightly more livable. From a sportsman, you really can’t ask for more.

Perception is such a funny beast. When cricket writers think of guts and gumption, they evoke the name Steve Waugh. An odd thing to say about a fellow who scored only 2 of his 32 centuries and averaged only 32 (compared to 51 for his career) in the 2nd inning of the Tests he played. So, basically Waugh made his reputation by often bailing his team out in the first innings, yet the legend is not restricted to that.

(AFP 2003, via CricInfo)

Perception is such a funny beast. Up until the time Sourav Ganguly retired, VVS Laxman was regarded as the last cog in the Fab Four, a George Harrison of cricket if you will. In his ODI career, Sourav Ganguly averaged a century once every 14 games at a strike rate of 73.70. VVS averaged a century once every 14 games over his ODI career at a strike rate of 71.23. But you will never hear the two names in one conversation about great ODI players.

(AP/PTI 2003)

Perception is such a funny beast. It has taken a long time for VVS Laxman's name to go off the chopping block and onto the teamsheet as a surety. But, for totally biased VVS fans like me, it's been a welcome transition from the almost-man to the current toast of Indian cricket.

In the aftermath of his latest masterpiece, I trolled the web seeking vindication through other writer's words. These are the cream of the crop...

a) First, Sharda Ugra waxes eloquently about Laxman. This was written after the previous Test match in Sri Lanka, but the circumstances are so similar it applies to this one, too.

The youngest among India's retreating golden generation of middle-order batsmen, he could leave cricket without any monumental record. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Graeme Smith, Mohammad Yousuf and Kumara Sangakkara have more hundreds, three of them in far fewer Tests. It does not matter. His will never be a career in numbers, anyway. He has always been a batsman of imagery and imagination. VVS Laxman's records may easily be overtaken, but they cannot be replicated.

2) Peter Roebuck provides a view from the other side.

Laxman was the key figure on the final day. All things seem possible whilst he remains at the crease. Australians and tension bring out the best in him. Romps in the park make him appear humdrum. Here he produced an astonishing array of strokes, pulls played without footwork, caresses through cover, flicks off his hip and all the while he kept his head.

Laxman belongs against the giants. But the Australians already knew that.

3) Dileep Premachandran reviews VVS's past exploits against the Aussies, among other things.

In the Indian dressing room, VVS Laxman is Very, Very Special. In Australia's they probably think of him in very different terms – Very, Very Sickening. In crisis situations that paralyse others, Laxman manages to bat with a composure and elegance that must be soul-destroying for the opposition. Others cramp up with nervous excitement. He strokes the ball into the gaps. As Zaheer Khan, an odd choice as man of the match following India's single-wicket win over Australia, said afterwards Laxman brings calm to the dressing room.

4) Soutik Biswas raises a toast to the man he calls "an elegant anachronism".

He walks in with a runner, his back sore and wracked with spasms. Half his side is gone for 76 runs, chasing a target of 216 on a decaying track against a gritty, if unspectacular, Australian attack. Defiant, sinuous and brisk in his strokeplay, he keeps putting the runs on the board, losing partners quickly before he finds an unusually responsible batsman in bowler Ishant Sharma. He stays unbeaten with 73 and takes India over the line. And when one of the most closely fought games in Test cricket ends, he walks back with a big, disarming smile, as he often does after fetching India an impossible victory. It is no big deal.

5) Ravi Shastri reviews the final day of the Mohali Test and has kind words for Laxman (and Ponting).

Mohali doesn’t suffer in comparison with the Eden Gardens and Adelaide wins, where India defied extreme odds.

Interestingly, in both those wins too, VVS Laxman was magical. Now, after Mohali, he is a colossus. Injury made him just a number in the batting line-up in the first innings. In the second, he needed the crutches of a runner. Yet, his will prevailed. Rarely has a non-century been as invaluable as Laxman’s 73 on Tuesday.

And all this due to the generosity of a man who isn’t viewed as fair by most Indian fans. Ricky Ponting was judged as inflammatory in Sydney. He wasn’t seen as courteous in getting the then BCCI chief down the podium after the Champions Trophy triumph in 2006.

In Mohali, though, he allowed Laxman with a runner in both the innings. He had made a public pledge to restore game’s dignity after the unsavoury episodes of recent times. The Australian skipper was as good as his word.

6) And if you have traveled this far in this blog, you deserve to read two articles by Sidharth Monga of CricInfo. The first talks about the stature that Laxman has attained en route to his rightful place in the pantheon of Indian greats.

Laxman has often been the most disposable member of the Indian team. It seems he has been playing for his place in the side throughout his career. Still, he has played so many of these saviour knocks for India that he thrives on these situations now. Possibly he longs for them. At least he wishes he could bat the same way in normal circumstances as he does in a crisis. Cricketers spend entire careers wishing to bat in a crisis as they do in a normal situation - an art Laxman has perfected. That's the world of Laxman.

Later in the evening, he caught up with the man himself and talked about the day and what it meant.

Okay, this is more the Laxman we know. Which is what confounds me often. The kind of innings Laxman is known for remind me of street-smart cricketers like Javed Miandad and Arjuna Ranatunga. Laxman is an entirely different character. How does he do it so often in those situations? He has a great theory.

"I think sometimes these situations get the best out of me, from the mental point of view," Laxman says. "Mentally I have always relished these situations. Always think right from my younger days, I really want to do well in such situations. If I don't do well, I feel really bad and that I have let the team down. I keep discussing with my coaches that I should be in the same mind frame when the going is easy also.

"Probably something to do with Hyderabad. Because when I was playing at that time, I was their main batsman and I had to get a lot of runs for them. I think the earlier part of my career with Hyderabad taught me a lot to take responsibility. Probably that helped me a lot."

7) Finally, some highlights from his knock in the last inning of the Mohali Test.