VVS Laxman: The rescue ranger who walked tall amid the ruins

VVS Laxman (left) and Rahul Dravid of India leave the field at the end of play after batting the entire day, after day four of the 2nd Test between India and Australia played at Eden Gardens in 2001.

In that period, he revived his career and played a huge part in turning around the fortunes of a side which had been rocked by the match-fixing saga as well as the resignation of Tendulkar as captain. At Eden Gardens, he played the greatest innings ever seen on Indian soil in the new century, pairing with Rahul Dravid for an extraordinary stand that Steve Waugh’s boys could not break for a whole day.

The wily Warne, looking to curtail Laxman’s free scoring, began bowling into the footmarks outside leg stump. However, VVS counter-attacked with his magical on-side play, and played his inside-out drives in the vacant off-side region to completely wipe out Warne’s hopes of a wicket. India won the game and took the series later, denying Waugh the conquest of the final frontier. Laxman earned the epithet Very Very Special after his majestic 281 in that match.

This was the beginning of a golden run for the batsman, and his dominance over the Kangaroos continued to grow in leaps and bounds. He also consolidated his position in the ODI line-up with some brilliant performances, and was regarded as one of India’s Fabulous Four along with Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly.

During the Greg Chappell era, Laxman was dropped from the limited-overs side owing to his slow running between the wickets and a rather one-dimensional approach to batting. He couldn’t score at a rapid rate in ODIs, and his fielding was also under the scanner. His Test form remained unaffected, and he demolished the Australian attack once again on the 2007-08 tour.

His grittiness was unmatched by any save Dravid and Tendulkar; he pulled off a famous win over Ricky Ponting’s men at Mohali despite struggling with an injured back and with only tail-enders for company. It was just one of the many rescue acts he had performed over the years, and he did it again during New Zealand’s tour of India. But defeats against England and his favourite whipping boys the Aussies prompted calls for retirement by former greats. His travails in the Indian Premier League, slowing reflexes and waning form eventually led him to call time on his international career in 2012.

One year later, India still haven’t managed to find a suitable replacement for the man with the silken touch. The long-suffering Australians have conceded that they just couldn’t find a way to get him out. The only blemish he has had on an otherwise glittering career is not playing in the ICC’s quadrennial showpiece – the World Cup – despite having represented the nation in over a hundred Test matches.

He was one of those players who had the innate ability to bat well with the tail, a trait that held him in good stead for many a year. What made it even more exciting was that the bowlers found the courage to provide him the much-needed support that kept him going in those adverse situations. This is what the current Indian line-up has been missing for a long time now.

For his sheer wizardry with the bat, Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman will forever remain India’s very very special gem indeed!