Former India player VVS Laxman told India Today Consulting Editor Sports Boria Majumdar has recently revealed his many cricketing memory. He said that former coach John Wright had asked him to bat at No. 3 position in the 2nd innings of 2001 Kolkata Test against Australia. After his first innings’ 59, he scored the magical innings and also stitched a 376-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Rahul Dravid (180).
When VVS Laxman came to bat, India were batting at 52 for 1 when the situation at Kolkata Eden Gardens was tensed and nerve-racking. India were 222 runs behind from Australia’s first innings’ score of 445 in their second innings after they were being asked for follow-on.
“So it (batting at No.3) came very naturally to me. No.6 never came naturally to me, opening never came naturally to me but No.3 was something which came very natural to me. Right from the age of 13, when I first played for Hyderabad U13 level, I always batted at No.3 so something which you have done right from your younger days. You know how to build an innings, you know how to pace your innings,” said VVS Laxman.
“I still remember very vividly, I came into the changing room, I was the last batsman out and I was just about to open my pads and suddenly John comes, taps my shoulder and tells “Lax doesn’t remove the pads,” I told why John with a surprised look on my face and he tells, you are going to bat No.3,” he shared.
“So I was very delighted, I didn’t have too much time to react to that decision because we were following on and Ramesh and SS Das almost went into the ground because there is only a ten minutes break between two innings and immediately got ready, went out and sat on that corridor, watching Ramesh and Das open the innings but I was really delighted and inwardly I was feeling the confidence,” VVS Laxman added.
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However, he shared he was about to quit cricket after not being selected in the team for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. All-rounder Dinesh Mongia was picked up over him where India reached the final before facing a humiliating defeat against Australia.
“My biggest inspiration was to play for the country. I still remember in 2003, when I was not picked up for the World Cup in South Africa. I almost gave up the game and I went and spent almost 2 months with my friends in the US who didn’t follow the game so much,” he told.
“And suddenly, I felt I was missing something and that was hitting the cricket ball. And then you put the game in the right perspective, thinking you did not start playing this game to play Test match cricket or one-day or represent the country, you started playing it because you loved that sport,” Laxman said.
“Every sportsperson has a lot of setbacks, that is the nature of the sport. But as long as you love that sport, you get up the next day and you continue to enjoy that sport. And enjoyment does not come only when you perform, enjoyment comes when you bounce back strong and that is a real test of your character and for that you have to prepare. Whether I scored a 100 or whether I got a zero, my preparation was the same. I was very equanimous also because of the upbringing I had,” VVS Laxman expressed.
VVS Laxman announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in 2012 after having played 134 Tests and 86 ODIs where he amassed 8781 and 2338 runs respectively, with 17 centuries in the longest format and 6 in ODI cricket. Moreover, he also shared how he enjoyed batting with the tail-enders like Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, and others.
“I think I should give credit to John Wright for this where I convinced John Wright that it is very important that we got bowlers who take pride in their batting whether Anil, Harbhajan, Ishant, Zaheer, whoever. We were very fortunate to have those bowlers who took a lot of pride in their batting and bowling,” he added.
“John made it a point that each batsman in the team would become a batting coach and a batting partner to one bowler. For me, it was Zaheer Khan. We had to make sure that after each net session we gave a throw down to the bowlers so they can improve on their skills. Working as a family is very important. and then I also used to have a chat with them saying they were very good. So when the challenges started coming by especially against good bowling attacks, I used to give them strike to show my belief and trust their ability. And I used to tell them you are capable of scoring runs. Communication is very important,” he explained.
“I’ll give you one instance this was with RP Singh at Perth in 2008. There was Shaun Tait who was the quickest in Australia. Then there was Brett Lee. Mitchell Johnson. As soon as I came in asked RP are you comfortable facing these bowlers and he told me he can face everyone except Brett Lee. So, whenever the other bowlers were bowling it was just like a normal partnership with the frontline batsman. But the moment Brett Lee, I took all the strike. And Ultimately RP got 31 runs off that 60ish partnership,” VVS Laxman concluded.
