Vangipurapu Venkata Sai Laxman is a former Indian international cricketer and a former cricket commentator and pundit.
98 Facts About VVS Laxman
2.
VVS Laxman is currently the Head of Cricket at the National Cricket Academy, and the head coach of the India Under-19 and India A teams.
3.
VVS Laxman was a member of the Indian team that was one of the joint-winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, which the title was shared with Sri Lanka.
4.
VVS Laxman is one of the few players to have played 100 Test matches, without ever appearing in a One-Day Cricket World Cup.
5.
VVS Laxman was the captain of the Deccan Chargers team in the Indian Premier League during its inaugural season.
6.
VVS Laxman was the mentor of the Sunrisers Hyderabad until 2021.
7.
VVS Laxman is popularly called as the 'God of 4th Innings' for his exploits.
8.
In 2011, VVS Laxman was awarded the Padma Shri award, India's fourth highest civilian award.
9.
VVS Laxman is the great-grandnephew of India's second President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.
10.
VVS Laxman is known for his fluid style, technical soundness and aggressiveness.
11.
VVS Laxman was particularly skillful in using his wrists that allowed him to place the same ball to different areas of the field.
12.
VVS Laxman plays with a high elbow and a steady stance and a textbook technique with natural elegance and flair.
13.
At the start of his career, VVS Laxman was rated by Geoffrey Boycott as one of India's best players of the hard ball.
14.
VVS Laxman was forced to play in almost every position, including opening.
15.
VVS Laxman found his home in the middle order, where he played most of his best innings, batting at numbers 3,5 and 6.
16.
Nevertheless, VVS Laxman batted particularly well with non-specialist lower-order batsmen, and was able, with their support, to save and win numerous matches for India.
17.
VVS Laxman made his Under-19 debut for India against Australia in February 1994.
18.
VVS Laxman continued his good form as he scored 36 and 84 in the third game to end up as the leading run-scorer of the series.
19.
VVS Laxman disappointed in the ODIs with scores of 20 and 5.
20.
VVS Laxman made only 28 in the second match and 4 in the third.
21.
VVS Laxman scored a duck in the first innings and 17 in the second.
22.
VVS Laxman played only one match for Hyderabad in the next season, before getting dropped.
23.
VVS Laxman had another brilliant Ranji season the next year, as he piled 775 runs in just 11 innings at an average of 86 with 3 centuries and a best of 203* that came against Karnataka in the semi-final, which Hyderabad eventually lost.
24.
VVS Laxman was picked to play for Rest of India against Karnataka in the Irani Cup and in the Board President's XI squad against the touring Australian team.
25.
VVS Laxman played in five games of the county championship and showed glimpses of his sublime batting.
26.
VVS Laxman was supposed to replace Adam Voges for Nottinghamshire, but this move was vetoed by the BCCI due to the fact that there were players from the rival Indian Cricket League playing for Nottinghamshire.
27.
VVS Laxman was originally named as the Icon Player for his home franchise Deccan Chargers before the first season of the IPL.
28.
However, VVS Laxman dropped himself from the team halfway through the season, after the team had a horrendous run in the tournament.
29.
Adam Gilchrist took over as captain and led the side in the next two seasons as well; VVS Laxman did score 155 runs from the 6 games that he played at an average of 31 and strike rate of 118.
30.
VVS Laxman batted at 3 in the first few games before opening the innings with Gilchrist in some matches where he found more success.
31.
VVS Laxman did score a couple more fluent innings that season including an unbeaten 37 from 26 balls against Mumbai Indians and 48 from 34 balls against Kings XI Punjab.
32.
At the mega-auction in 2011, VVS Laxman was bought by the newly formed franchise of Kochi Tuskers Kerala for $400,000.
33.
However, VVS Laxman, who had a base price of $400,000, found no buyers and he couldn't participate in the 2012 edition of the tournament.
34.
VVS Laxman made his Test debut in 1996 against South Africa at Ahmedabad, scoring a fifty in the second innings of the match.
35.
VVS Laxman played just one Test in the South African tour the following month and was unable to cement his place in a star-studded Indian middle order.
36.
VVS Laxman scored a duck on his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in the Pepsi Tri-Series in 1998.
37.
VVS Laxman had a horrible run in the ODIs in 1998 which resulted in him getting dropped from the ODI team for more than a year.
38.
VVS Laxman returned to playing first-class cricket in 1999 to regain his place in the national team.
39.
VVS Laxman's performance was rewarded when, in January 2000, he was recalled in the Indian squad for the Australian tour.
40.
VVS Laxman scored 167 in the third and final Test match at Sydney 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 tour.
41.
VVS Laxman was recalled in late 2000, and found a spot in the side for the home series against Australia in 2001.
42.
VVS Laxman 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.
43.
VVS Laxman hit 51 in the first innings of the final Test at Adelaide.
44.
VVS Laxman finished as the second highest run-getter for India in that series, only behind Sachin Tendulkar.
45.
VVS Laxman was dismissed by Mendis on all five occasions in that series.
46.
Against Australia, in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy later that year, VVS Laxman was in top form as he scored 381 runs from 4 Tests with a double-hundred and two fifties.
47.
VVS Laxman made an unbeaten 59 in the second innings and was named Man of the Match.
48.
VVS Laxman had scored 76 and 124* in the 2nd Test at Napier in New Zealand.
49.
Against Sri Lanka later that year in a home series, VVS Laxman hit three fifties in four innings as India went on to win the series comfortably.
50.
VVS Laxman scored two fifties in the next two games as India went on to win both matches by an innings.
51.
VVS Laxman injured himself during the first match of the two-match Test series in Bangladesh in January 2010 after scoring another unbeaten half-century.
52.
VVS Laxman scored 143* in a record stand for the seventh wicket with MS Dhoni.
53.
VVS Laxman helped India to level the series with Sri Lanka in August 2010 when he hit 103 not out in the run-chase, resulting in a five-wicket win in the Third Test, after scoring 69 in the first innings.
54.
VVS Laxman was awarded the Man of the Match for this brilliant effort.
55.
VVS Laxman scored a total of 279 runs in that series at an average of 70.
56.
VVS Laxman was ruled out of the remaining matches of the series due to his injury.
57.
VVS Laxman was awarded the Man of the Match for his match-winning innings of 96.
58.
In three test matches, VVS Laxman scored three consecutive fifties including two scores in eighties against the West Indies during India's tour of West Indies in June 2011.
59.
VVS Laxman got out with the pull shot frequently in this series, which otherwise he is good at.
60.
On 18 August 2012, VVS Laxman announced his retirement from international cricket.
61.
VVS Laxman was particularly prolific against Australia, in both Tests and One Day Internationals.
62.
VVS Laxman's career changed dramatically in the 2001 home series against Australia.
63.
VVS Laxman broke Sunil Gavaskar's long standing Indian Test record score of 236*.
64.
VVS Laxman's performance was of enormous consequence: India had been on the brink of an innings defeat but went on to win the Test and the series, denying Steve Waugh's conquest of the "final frontier".
65.
At the time, the pitch was taking significant turn, and to negate VVS Laxman's free scoring, Australian leg spinner Shane Warne pitched his deliveries into the footmarks outside leg stump.
66.
When Warne attempted to stop VVS Laxman from scoring by defensively stationing most of the fielders on the leg side and bowling outside leg stump, VVS Laxman proceeded to skip down the pitch and drive Warne inside-out through the vacant off side, hitting through the line of a substantially turning ball.
67.
VVS Laxman had great amount of success batting at No 3 in the ODI series that followed the Tests, as he scored 45,51,83,11 and 101 in the five games, thus cementing his spot in the ODI line-up as well.
68.
VVS Laxman then cemented his place both in the Test and one day teams for a few years.
69.
VVS Laxman managed to score a fighting 89 in the second Test at Port Elizabeth, when the rest of the team struggled to survive against Shaun Pollock's deadly bowling, helping his team put up 201 on the board and avoid an embarrassing follow-on.
70.
VVS Laxman had a great tour of West Indies, as he scored 474 runs in 8 innings at an average of 79.
71.
VVS Laxman had scores of 69,69*, 74,1,43,130,65* and 23 in that series.
72.
VVS Laxman performed reasonably well during West Indies tour of India as well, particularly in the third match at Kolkata, where he scored 48 and 154*.
73.
VVS Laxman followed it up with brilliant showing in the 7-match ODI series as well with scores of 47,99,66 and 71 in the first five games.
74.
VVS Laxman won the Man of the Series award for his impressive batting performances in the two Test match series.
75.
VVS Laxman was involved in two century partnerships, one with Tendulkar and the other with Dravid, in the Brisbane ODI against Australia where he remained unbeaten on 102.
76.
VVS Laxman scored 148 in the famous Adelaide Test, sharing a triple century partnership with Rahul Dravid, which India won by 4 wickets.
77.
VVS Laxman scored a total of 494 runs from the 4 Tests at a staggering average of 82.
78.
However, VVS Laxman's form was on the decline since the series against Australia.
79.
VVS Laxman averaged just 31 in the Test series in Pakistan in 3 matches.
80.
VVS Laxman struggled to score in the ODI series in England which put question marks over his future in the shorter format.
81.
VVS Laxman had a mixed Test series against Pakistan in 2005.
82.
VVS Laxman scored 58 in the first Test, 0 and 24 in the second and 79* and 5 in the third.
83.
VVS Laxman batted well in the Sri Lanka Test series scoring a fifty at Delhi and a crucial century in the last match at Ahmedabad.
84.
VVS Laxman was dropped after scoring a duck in the first Test against England at Nagpur in March 2006.
85.
VVS Laxman regained his place for the tour of the West Indies in place of the injured Tendulkar, and made a hundred in the third Test.
86.
VVS Laxman scored a resilient 63 in the second innings to deny West Indies the victory in the same match.
87.
In ODIs, VVS Laxman was left out persistently since Greg Chappell took over as coach in mid-2005, mainly on account of his slow ground fielding and running between the wickets; VVS Laxman is a highly regarded close-catching fielder in stationary positions but in ODIs, these positions are generally disused except for the opening phases of the match, and players otherwise have to patrol substantial spaces and retrieve balls.
88.
In December 2005, VVS Laxman helped India to victory against Sri Lanka with a fine century.
89.
In June 2006, VVS Laxman again rescued India from a difficult position against the West Indies with a gritty century.
90.
VVS Laxman passed the 5000 run landmark in the first day of the final test.
91.
VVS Laxman showed his importance to the team with a disciplined batting performance in the 1st Test at Delhi, as he scored 72* in dire circumstances.
92.
VVS Laxman then followed that innings of 72 in the first test with 112 in the second test.
93.
VVS Laxman is one of the member of the elite three-man panel that consists of three Legends of Cricket, VVS Laxman being one, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly being the other two.
94.
VVS Laxman made his Test debut against South Africa in November 1996, and took almost four years to score his first century when he scored 167 against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2000.
95.
In Test matches, VVS Laxman has scored centuries against all the Test cricket playing nations except England and Bangladesh.
96.
VVS Laxman has scored two double centuries and has been dismissed four times between the score of 90 and 99 in test matches.
97.
In ODIs, VVS Laxman has scored six centuries against three countries including four against Australia.
98.
VVS Laxman has been dismissed once between the score of 90 and 99.