 Very Very Special
 I first heard from my former teammates at Hyderabad in the early nineties about a striking young batting talent surfacing there. Word spreads quickly through the grapevine in cricket circles and soon VVS Laxman was a name familiar to many of us.
By the time Laxman made his Test debut, I had already seen him in domestic cricket and like many others, been impressed by his temperament and timing. In the big league of Test cricket, he continued to impress, though a couple of years down the road, he had still failed to cement his place in the team. This was not entirely his fault, as the selectors had converted him from a middle-order batsman to an opener.
Notwithstanding his relative early success in this role, I always had misgivings about that move, as rarely have converted openers succeeded in the long term. Even after his swashbuckling 167 at Sydney, I was not convinced he should open the innings. Watching Channel Nine, I also felt he tended to play across the line a bit, thanks to his penchant for wristy
ondrives, though I don't pretend to be a batting expert. I felt sad that such a gifted player was unable to correct basic technical flaws.
 When I watched Laxman during his monumental 281 in the 2001 Kolkata Test against Australia, I was amazed by the transformation in his batting. He was batting much straighter and confirming that his enormous appetite for runs was no longer confined to domestic cricket. Strokes flowed from his bat in a continuous, delightful stream almost throughout his marathon innings. This was an immortal knock, to go down soon as Wisden’s choice of the greatest Indian Test innings of all time.
Laxman reminds you of some classy Hyderabad batsmen of the past. Most of them were an aesthete's delight, but it was the taller batsmen among them, Jaisimha and Azharuddin, with whose batting styles Laxman's bears comparison. Jaisimha could thump the ball when the mood overtook him, but he had wrists of steel that he normally employed to stylish effect. Azharuddin's wristy batting style had considerable impact on Laxman's, by his own admission, but he is no imitator. His offside play is so much more controlled and elegant than that of Azhar, whose on drives are admittedly peerless. Unlike Azhar, he also hooks authoritatively. And none of his predecessors could match his ability to concentrate for very long periods. To me, he is the one batsman you could never tire of watching.
Soon after that great series against Australia in 2001, Laxman seemed to be suffering from having too many runs in his kitty, while touring Zimbabwe, tending perhaps to find batting altogether too easy and unconsciously overlooking the need to make adjustments to suit local conditions. In subsequent series, Laxman banished any remnants of complacency and proved time and again that he is a long distance runner. The selectors have however been quick to punish him for the slightest loss of form and sometimes for his consistent excellence! Of all the Indian batsmen to have won world renown, he remains the only one not to have figured in the World Cup. This is a black mark, not against Laxman’s name, but on the credibility of India’s selectors.
V Ramnarayan
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