6 Indian legends who bid goodbye this decade 

#3. VVS Laxman

VVS Laxman

India’s Very Very Special talent, VVS Laxman retired from international cricket in August 2012 after faring poorly in England and Australia in the 2011-12 season. Laxman featured in 134 Tests for India and notched up 8,781 runs at an average of 45.97 with 17 hundreds and 56 fifties. He played in only 86 ODIs, scoring 2,338 runs at an average of 30.76 with 6 hundreds and 10 fifties. Laxman is among the handful of cricketers who have played over 100 Tests but have never featured in the World Cup.

The elegant Hyderabadi’s name will forever be synonymous with the 281 against Australia at Eden Gardens in 2001 when he, along with Rahul Dravid, engineered one of the most stunning turnarounds in Test cricket, after India were made to follow-on. Laxman, in fact, reserved special treatment for Australia. It was against them at Sydney in 2000 that he registered his maiden Test hundred - a cracking 167 in a losing cause. He also scored two big hundreds in the 2003-04 series Down Under. His unbeaten 73 saw India home in a tense chase of 216 at Mohali in 2010 after they stumbled to 124 for 8.

Laxman made his Test debut against South Africa at Ahmedabad in 1996, and scored a hard-fought 51 in a winning cause. However, it was not until the early 2000s that he became a permanent fixture in the Indian team. He often lost his place in the Test side after being asked to open in the absence of regular openers. Once he moved to the middle-order, he was a different player altogether.

Despite managing only 337 runs in 8 Tests in Australia and England, he was chosen for the Tests against New Zealand in 2012. However, he announced his retirement prior to the series, marking the end of a ‘special’ era in Indian cricket.