VVS Laxman      

At his sublime best, VVS Laxman is a sight for the gods. Wristy, willowy and sinuous, he can match - sometimes even better - Tendulkar for strokeplay. His on-side game is comparable to his idol Azharuddin's, yet he is decidedly more assured on the off side and has the rare gift of being able to hit the same ball to either side. The Australians, who have suffered more than most, paid the highest compliment after India's 2003-04 tour Down Under by admitting they did not know where to bowl to him. Laxman, a one-time medical student, finally showed signs of coming to terms with his considerable gifts in March 2001, as he tormented Steve Waugh's thought-to-be-invincible Australians with a majestic ...

At his sublime best, VVS Laxman is a sight for the gods. Wristy, willowy and sinuous, he can match - sometimes even better - Tendulkar for strokeplay. His on-side game is comparable to his idol Azharuddin's, yet he is decidedly more assured on the off side and has the rare gift of being able to hit the same ball to either side. The Australians, who have suffered more than most, paid the highest compliment after India's 2003-04 tour Down Under by admitting they did not know where to bowl to him. Laxman, a one-time medical student, finally showed signs of coming to terms with his considerable gifts in March 2001, as he tormented Steve Waugh's thought-to-be-invincible Australians with a majestic 281 to stand the Kolkata Test on its head. But even though he had another wonderful series against the Australians in 2003-04 with two centuries, one of them involving a back-from-the-dead, match-winning, 300-plus partnership with Kolkata ally Rahul Dravid at Adelaide, he hasn't quite managed the consistency that could have turned him into a batting great. Between dazzling and sometimes workmanlike hundreds, he has suffered the frustration of numerous twenties and thirties and has lost his place in the one-day side. Nothing, though, has deterred him from tormenting his favourite opponents with silken strokes and piles of runs: in the course of the double-hundred at Feroz Shah Kotla in 2008, he became the second Indian batsman after Tendulkar to score more than 2000 runs against the Australians.
Sambit Bal October 2008

February-March, 1994
An early taste for Australia
• In his first outing with the India Under-19s, he averages 110.25 in three Tests against the visiting Australian U-19 team, which includes Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee and Andrew Symonds
  
November 22, 1996
A promising beginning
• On his Test debut, against South Africa in Ahmedabad, he makes a composed 51 in the second innings - one of only two half-centuries in the match - to set up India's victory in a low-scoring game
  
March 6, 1997
Top order, but not top form
• India's impregnable middle-order means Laxman has to play as an opener to remain in the side. On his first assignment in the West Indies, he has a torrid time and is dropped by the end of the series
  
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Ranji Trophy 1999-2000
A domestic giant
• Still being shunted in and out of the Indian side, he makes his case with a staggering 1415 runs in the Ranji Trophy, the most ever in a single season
  
January 4, 2000
Let me entertain you
• The knock that proves his international credentials. At the end of a wretched Test series for him and India, he strokes a majestic 167 off 198 balls against Australia in Sydney, his first Test century
  
March 13-15, 2001
Very, very special
• The defining innings. Steve Waugh's Australians were relentlessly marching towards conquering the "Final Frontier" with a 274-run first innings lead in the second Test in Kolkata. His epic 281 leads an astonishing recovery and India sneak to victory by 171 runs
  
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November 2-3, 2002
Kolkata love affair continues
• With nearly five sessions to play, India are four wickets down in the second innings and still trailing by 53 runs against West Indies in Kokata. He puts on a combative 214 with Sachin Tendulkar to take India to safety
  
December 2003-January 2004
Another dose of trouble for Australia
• Spoils Steve Waugh's farewell Test series. A backs-to-the-wall 303-run stand with Rahul Dravid sets up the famous victory in Adelaide before a dazzling 178 in Sydney and a triple-century partnership with Sachin Tendulkar gives India a chance to seal the series
  
November 5, 2004
Negotiating a Mumbai minefield
• On an astonishing day when twenty wickets fell, on a dustbowl that Ricky Ponting called "nowhere near to being Test standard", he scripts a doughty 69 that paved the way for a consolation victory in Mumbai
  
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January 3, 2008
I love Sydney
• India's batting, which had struggled in the first Test, finally gets going in the controversial second Test in Sydney with a silken century from Laxman, who along with Sachin Tendulkar puts India back in the contest
  
October 29-30, 2008
Delhi demolition
• He torments Australia again with his second double-century in Tests, which helps India amass 613 in Delhi and guides them closer to reclaiming the Border-Gavaskar Trophy
  
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