Remembering VVS. Laxman...

[goose]

Just finished reading an interview with Laxman, on his county stint with Lancashire, recently posted on Cricinfo and felt a renewed sense of awe. What a shame that our test match pipeline is looking so sparse. It's a sad indictment of Indian cricket, and cricket in general nowadays, that an active player of this class is afforded such little time at the international crease and forum space. Nevermind ICC rankings and win loss ratios, in a world where most line-ups are in a perpetual state of rebuilding, we all deserve some more of this legendary action and preferably overseas... Sehwag Gambhir Dravid Tendulkar Laxman Yuvraj Dhoni Has there been a better top seven, ever? Feel free to debate this question - i know my answer. It's a decidedly tougher one to answer without the inclusion of VVS. Laxman.

[champ]

laxman is a dangerous batsmen just like sehwag is in tests. he is a true match winner for india in test. the knock at calcutta scoring 200+ after following on , i dont think an innings close to that has been placed. one helluva batsmen.. :two_thumbs_up:

[DomainK]

Ah, the walking wicket?:notsmiley:

[Sooda]

There has been better top orders, our own top 7 with Ganguly in there and not Yuv, even if we had no one half decent to open with Sehwag. And WIndian, Aussie teams of the past have had great top orders The point re: Laxman is a good one though. The guy is class. A good case can be made to say hes the 5th best Indian test bat ever (SRT, SG, RD, VS being top 4) An underrated ODI batter as well, his centuries in the VB series of 04 were real class, and then when we toured Pak he scored another gem in one of the matches, remembering watchingthat.

[Lord]

the thing about Laxman i love is that he excels wen the going gets tough for India or wen his own place is under pressure.he seems to thrive under pressure

[goose]

There has been better top orders, our own top 7 with Ganguly in there and not Yuv, even if we had no one half decent to open with Sehwag. And WIndian, Aussie teams of the past have had great top orders The point re: Laxman is a good one though. The guy is class. A good case can be made to say hes the 5th best Indian test bat ever (SRT, SG, RD, VS being top 4) An underrated ODI batter as well, his centuries in the VB series of 04 were real class, and then when we toured Pak he scored another gem in one of the matches, remembering watchingthat.

When Ganguly was a fixture in the side, we still had to bank on makeshift and/or inexperienced openers - Patel, Chopra, Bangar - to name a few. Today we have the ICC Test Batsman Of The Year filling in.

[goose]

the thing about Laxman i love is that he excels wen the going gets tough for India or wen his own place is under pressure.he seems to thrive under pressure

Agreed. What excites me further, is the time he has spent on English wickets.

[Temujin Khaghan]

if only he trained harder on his fielding agility... he would have scored a lot of runs in odi cricket.

[Rohan495]

Honestly its fair to say that i have been the most vocal Laxman fan on this forum, see the problem with the indian way of selection is that there are many exaggerations. Laxman's fielding isnt as bad. The problem he had a bad knee injury. But honestly the way the Cricket board handled him was horrible, like dropping him when he was in good form. There was also this rumor that Ganguly dropped Laxman in favor of Dinesh Mongia for the world cup, which is utter BS, we saw how horrible Mongia was. So whether it was being a scapegoat, politics, or poor form the truth will never be known why the Indian cricket board handled him that way . Were going to see him surely in the champions league because he was the leading scorer in the English County League with an average of 79.50

[Sooda]

He was good in the slips wasnt he, and even his running was often unfairly criticsied his shot placement was excellent. Mongia was a better fielder and could bowl a bit so I guess he edged him there.

[Indianfan_Hyd]

Sadly this Gods Gift to India doesnt get to play more tests thanks to the Sloth IPL Modi.... more of IPL and less of Tests....BS..... He is 34 now and Knowing how fragile his body is there are nt many years left in him. I think he should play for Countys and go to Australia to play for their state sides. All those matches should be telecast live in India so that we can see the rarest of rare of Human sporting Talents on display. There are a lot of players like him albeit with lesser talents who are nt getting any chances in this age of Gully cricket which is IPL..... As a true cricket fan I shudder at the thought of not being able to watch anymore of genuine test cricketers. All the young batsmen coming up in India have no technique, no temperament no Pedigree. All are gullly T20 Players.. I fear that Gauti is the last of that great breed of genuine batsmen. After Dravid, Tendu, Lax goes I may have to stop watching cricket.. See Paki team has no player left except for Youhana who is on his last leg rest of em are Afridi types.

[ludhianvi]

if only he trained harder on his fielding agility... he would have scored a lot of runs in odi cricket.

I think I recall a commentator mentioning that VVS was very agile in the field in his early days but then had some injury/operation on his knees and since then his mobility has been hampered.

[Bumper]

Laxman is a rare cricketer, perhaps an unique blend of Dravid & Tendulkar. Cricket has seen players like Tendulkar (the Lara, Ponting types),like Dravid (the Chanderpaul, Boycott, Waugh types), but never a Laxman. Sheer quality player.

[vvvslaxman]

Hyderabadi Flair will be gone once he is gone. Azhar, Laxman. No one else has emerged from there after them. Rao and Rayudu were hyped. But both of them are nowhere near to Laxman's class.

[kabira]

^what you dont know about Arjun Yadav?

[Guest Gunner]

My endearing moment of VVS will be the 167 he scored at the SCG against Mcgrath & co in 1999-00. We had been hammered in that test series. We were going to suffer a 3rd straight loss but for about 4 hrs Laxman brought a lot of joy to me. If I remember correctly he scored 25 boundaries, each one a gem. He played every stroke in the book on that morning against the aussies. He let everyone know that day he had arrived.

[sandeep]

Rohan, I understand you know the guy and its hard to be objective - but VVS is definitely a weak link in fielding. Anyone remember that ODI in Calcutta where he dropped 5-6 catches - in ONE GAME! Badani drove the final nail in his career that game - getting out sweeping when he had a shot at finishing the game - i think we were chasing 235 or something gettable like that...

[Jersey #10]

The best line up for test I can think of is ... Sehwag Gambhir Jaffer Sachin Ganguly VVS Lax Dravid

[patriot]

Mohammad Ayazuddin Watch this space.

[nikred]

Rohan, I understand you know the guy and its hard to be objective - but VVS is definitely a weak link in fielding. Anyone remember that ODI in Calcutta where he dropped 5-6 catches - in ONE GAME! Badani drove the final nail in his career that game - getting out sweeping when he had a shot at finishing the game - i think we were chasing 235 or something gettable like that...

Are you saying VVS Laxman is a poor fielder in terms of catching based on that one match? If that's the case then you know nothing about him. He is a poor out fielder granted but he has safe pair of hands and one of the best slips fielder India has.