‘God gave me less talent, but you…’ When Sachin’s Guru Gyan breathed life into Laxman, then charisma happened

New Delhi. There have been very few cricketers who have had an unmatched record against any one team. Former Indian batsman VVS Laxman was one of them. Laxman’s record against Australia is very very special. Laxman, who made his Test debut against Australia, created history by scoring 281 against Australia in the 2001 Kolkata Test. It was only after this that Laxman entered the Fab Four of Indian cricket along with Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. Laxman scored 2434 runs in 29 Tests against Australia at an average of 50. 6 out of 17 Tests came against Australia only.

VVS Laxman’s real tryst with Australia was not in 2001, but two years back when the Indian team toured Australia in 1999-2000. India lost all the three Tests on that tour. But, VVS Laxman emerged as a batsman for India. Laxman played an inning of 167 runs in the Sydney Test on that tour. Before this innings, Laxman got Guru Gyan from Sachin Tendulkar, which changed his career.

Quoting from the book ‘Sachin at 50’, SSK Prasad, who was the wicketkeeper of the team on that tour, narrated a story of how one of Sachin’s words ignited Laxman and he played an innings of 167 runs in Sydney and since then Laxman looked completely different as a batsman. According to Prasad, after losing the first Test in Adelaide, Sachin, VVS and I had gone for dinner. During this we were discussing how to make a comeback in the remaining matches. There was a discussion about the favorite player in every talk. I said that I like Rahul Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman. Laxman also took the names of many players.

When Sachin breathed life into Laxman
After this VVS Laxman asked Sachin about his favorite player. To this Sachin replied, “If you (Laxman) do not laugh and do not show your teeth, then I would say that you are my favorite player. Just on hearing this, Laxman started laughing and said that Sachin was only making fun of him. Sachin interrupted him and said that Laxman, let me tell you one thing. You are so talented. You see the ball much earlier. God has given you this extraordinary talent, which you are not able to understand. God has given me less talent, which I am using to the maximum. There are four gears in my batting defence. Push, Drive and Loft. I understand the conditions and batting based on that.

Laxman played marathon innings after Sachin’s advice
Sachin further said to Laxman, “You have so much talent that you can bat directly in fourth gear. You see the ball so quickly that you don’t even need to think about the conditions. So, sometimes you play well and sometimes you fail. The day you realize the first three gears of your batting, that day you will become a legend.

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MSK Prasad said that VVS Laxman’s batting changed completely after this Guru Gyan from Sachin and he scored 167 runs in the third Test played in Sydney. After this, he played memorable innings against Australia on several occasions.

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Tags: India vs Australia, sachin tendulkar, vvs laxman