Laxman is glad the 15-month wait is over

The morning session of the second day of the Eden Gardens Test saw some strange occurrences. On one end, Yuvraj Singh was struggling to bat, edging the ball numerous times, getting hit by bouncers, playing and missing a few times,  and at the other end, it seemed as if VVS Laxman was playing on a different wicket, in a different world. The ball was swinging around a bit - not that it mattered because it was still hitting the middle of Laxman’s bat and speeding off towards the boundary. And despite having seen him play the pull shot countless times, the fluency of the shot still took one’s breath away. It just proved once again that Test cricket – more than any other format of the game – is played in the mind. Yuvraj felt the need, the compulsion to make an impact by playing forceful strokes. Of course, he also knew that his place in the side was at risk. So he took what he thought was the easy way out. The pitch seemed good to bat on, if Yuvraj had got a quick fifty, his place in the third Test would have been secure. If that was indeed his thought, it was extremely shallow. [caption id=“attachment_131876” align=“alignright” width=“380” caption=“VVS Laxman was in superb touch. AFP”]  [/caption] Laxman had some cause to be concerned as well. For 15 months, he hadn’t touched the three-figure mark. His form in England had been sketchy – in four Tests, he had scored just 182 runs at 22.75. And considering how easily his name tends to crop up in selection meeting, it wasn’t a pleasant place to be in. But not for a moment did he betray that emotion during his stay in the middle. Calm and collected was the way to go and it paid off. On his favourite ground, Laxman scored an unbeaten 176 off 280 balls. “It was a relief to get a hundred. The last one was against Sri Lanka at P Sara Oval in the third Test where the team was under tremendous pressure. After that I played knocks in pressure situations,” Laxman said at close of play. Laxman, who had struck a career-best 281 not out at this venue against Australia in 2003, said when he went out to bat, at 205 for three, things were a lot easier. “Luckily in this Test (Virender) Sehwag and (Gautam) Gambhir gave us a good start. Obviously Rahul and Sachin too had a good partnership. So when I went into bat the position was not very challenging.” “But it was important for us to build a partnership that’s what Rahul and I tried to do. Seeing the nature of the wicket, where it deteriorates on the third and fourth day, it was important to get a big score in the first innings.” One of the reasons that Laxman’s average hovers below fifty is because he is someone who gets easily bored. There are times in the past when the challenge just wasn’t enough to keep him interested. That, of course, has a lot to do with the talent he has at his disposal as well. But this time he showed that he’s starting to learn the art of capitalising on opportunities. His knock included 102 singles, 13 twos and just 12 boundaries… this even when Dhoni, at the other end, was going absolutely nuts (144 off 175 balls, 10 fours and 5 sixes). The break-up in his scoring regions was very good as well – 86 runs on the off-side and 90 runs on the on-side – an indication of how tough it was to bowl to him. The ease with which he settles into the assigned role is now almost legendary. He put on 224 runs for the seventh wicket with Dhoni, his own contribution being 75. With Dravid, he put on 140 for the fourth wicket, Laxman’s contribution there being 72. He believes in playing his own game, at his own pace – the batsman at the other end rarely ever influences his style. And in Test cricket that can often be invaluable because often you get carried away by the momentum and play a rash shot or put a foot wrong. But if you are doing what you do best, then the chances of that happening are fewer. In Laxman, India has the kind of player who just rolls on and does his thing, completely unaffected by the madness around him. And in this day and age, that’s a pretty rare quality.