Very Very Special Laxman

Cricket has been played a pivotal role in the entertainment of Indian aficionados for the last three decades. But it is the players who have taken the sport to the zenith without a question. Their zest and zen have been personified in this glorious game of cricket. Today I am bringing to the notice such a class act who always saves his best for the invincible and imperious mighty Aussies. He had been a nemesis for Australia for a decade. Yes, he is none other than Vangipuram Venkat  Sai Laxman or simply VVS.

Very Very Special Laxman was born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Laxman’s parents are renowned physicians Dr. Shantaram and Dr. Satyabhama of Vijayawada. Laxman is the great grand-nephew of India’s second President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

VVS Laxman with family

Laxman made his first-class debut for Hyderabad against Punjab in the quarter-final match of 1992–93 Ranji Trophy season. He came to notice while his Under-19 debut for India against Australia in February 1994. Batting at six, he made 88 in his debut innings against a bowling attack that included fearsome tearing away first bowlers like Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie, both of whom were making their debuts too. But his career was not that smooth and elegant like his on –drives as he was axed from the Indian team for several occasions. But finally, he stamped his authority while scoring a chanceless 167 in the third and final Test match at Sydney in 1999 Australia tour when the rest of the batsmen struggled to cope with Glenn McGrath’s destructive bowling, a rare high point for India in an otherwise disastrous and doomed tour.

But the turning point of his career came when Australia toured India in 2001 for 3-test series. At that time Australia was unbeatable for the last 15 tests in both home and away series. After a humiliating innings defeat in the first test at Wankhede, Mumbai, India has to play out of their skin to salvage their pride in the home. Again in the first inning, India bundled out for meager total without much fight and resistance against the likes of Mcgrath, Gillespe, and Warne and asked for a follow-on. India was looking down the barrel for an inning defeat and none other than God would have known that history was going to be written at the Eden Gardens. India seemed to be all but out of the match, and the series, but then came to an epic 376-run partnership between V. V. S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid. The duo batted together for an entire day, allowing India to set Australia an imposing target of 384 to win on the final day. Australia appeared to be safely batting out the match for a draw, until losing 7/56 in the final session, collapsing from 166/3 to be bowled out for 212. India ended Australia’s 16-match world record winning streak and became only the third team to win a Test after being forced to follow on with Australia having been the losing team on all three occasions. The score of 281 by VVS Laxman was registered as the best inning by an Indian cricketer in the annals of prestigious Wisdom cricket.

Very very Special Laxman

This was a career-changing moment for VVS and he did not turn back in his career. He had now cemented his position in the Indian cricket team as was at his best against the mighty Aussies. He was a wonderful wristy player to watch. He can play the same delivery both in the on- side and offside with much style and strength piercing the tight fielding cordon. Probably after Tendulkar anybody who could have murdered spin legend Warne in turning Indian pitches is VVS.

After the epic test series against the all-time great team, Aussies did not stop here as he kept on piling runs against all most all opposition in the crunch situations. Some of his classy knocks came in 2^nd inning with the tail-enders against staunch opposition in venomous pitches.

In the 2003-04 tour to Australia, he scored a stylish 148 in the famous Adelaide Test, sharing a triple century partnership with Rahul Dravid, which India won by 4 wickets. This was their first Test victory in Australia in two decades beating the lion in his own den. His innings of 178 at Sydney also came in a triple century partnership, on this occasion with Sachin Tendulkar. India went on to post 705/7 in their first innings which is their highest total in Test cricket. Laxman scored a total of 494 runs from the 4 Tests at a staggering average of 82. During this series, Ian Chappell described Laxman as Very Very Special Laxman. In December 2005, Laxman helped India to victory against Sri Lanka with a fine century. In June 2006, Laxman again rescued India from a difficult position against the West Indies with a gritty century. In November 2006, he was selected in the Test squad for India’s tour of South Africa. In the first test in Johannesburg Laxman scored 73 in the second innings to help India claim a historic 123 run win.

Laxman’s good form continued in the 2007-08 Test series against Australia with him scoring 109 against Australia on the second day of the controversial Sydney Test to put India back into the contest. It was his 12th hundred in Test matches and his 5th against Australia. It was also his third consecutive century at SCG, giving him an average well above 90 at the venue. He followed this up with a gritty knock of 79 in Perth, assisted by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and RP Singh, which set India up to record a historic and unexpected victory at a ground on which previously no Asian team had won. He hit 51 in the first innings of the final Test at Adelaide. He finished as the second-highest run-getter for India in that series, only behind Sachin Tendulkar.

Against Australia, in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy later that year, Laxman was in top form as he scored 381 runs from 4 Tests with a double-hundred and two fifties. During the third Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi, Laxman scored an unbeaten 200 in the first innings with characteristic use of his wrists and flicks through the leg side. In the same innings, Gautam Gambhir scored 206, Laxman and Gambhir becoming the first pair of batsmen to score double-centuries in the same innings for India, and the first to do so against Australia. This was his second double-century in Test cricket with the previous one coming against the same opponents. He made an unbeaten 59 in the second innings and was named Man of the Match. The match was also the last game of India’s spin wizard Anil Kumble who was also the captain of the team. In 2009, Laxman continued to be in brilliant form. He had scored 76 and 124* in the 2nd Test at Napier in New Zealand. The century helped India salvage a draw and avoid an innings defeat. In the next match at Wellington, he hit a well-composed 61 in the second innings. Against Sri Lanka later that year in a home series, Laxman hit three fifties in four innings as India went on to win the series comfortably. His unbeaten 51 in the second innings combining with a hundred from Tendulkar helped India draw the first Test at Ahmedabad. Laxman scored two fifties in the next two games as India went on to win both matches by an innings.

As every special package has a time out, Laxman’s career had to end after 15 year-long international stints serving the nation as a master class and legend cricketer who played the game at his very very best. On 18 August 2012, Laxman announced his retirement from international cricket. Although he was selected for the upcoming New Zealand series, he opted not to play in the series but he will play in domestic cricket for Hyderabad and the Indian Premier League. It was announced that the northern stand at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad will now be named after him. He was having a staggering average of 46 and amassing 8781 runs in his prolonged Test career in 131 tests. He has also represented India in 86 ODI scoring 2388 runs with six magnificent centuries.

Post-retirement like a student of the old school of consistent cricket, he has conferred the membership of the elite three-man panel that consists of three Legends of Cricket, Laxman being one, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly being the other two. This three-man panel is known as the Cricket Advisory Committee of BCCI. This committee was set up to advise BCCI on various issues and to help BCCI with its immense Cricketing experience.

VVS Laxman was one of the chief architects of Indian cricket in the Golden era. He along with Dravid, Tendulkar, and Ganguly widely acclaimed as Fab four of Indian cricket, had crafted many famous wins mostly in alien overseas conditions. Time has come to watch and relish the Hyderabad legend elegance stroke play by revisiting yesteryear cricket classics.

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