On this day in 1974, former India batter and Test player VVS Laxman was born. Famous for his 281 runs against Australia in Kolkata Test 2001 (This innings helped the Men In Blue win the game despite following on). Apart from this, he has won a lot of difficult games for the team. For Ex – Mohali against Australia (2010), against South Africa in Durban (late 2010) and many more.
Talking about his Test career, it started in 1996 against South Africa in Ahmedabad’s old Motera Stadium. 16 years later, the Hyderabad player played his last against his favorite opposition, Australia in Adelaide. Between this, the right-hander has played 134 games and has 8781 runs averaging 45.97 including 17 hundreds and 56 fifties.
The former Deccan Chargers player in the IPL also played 86 ODIs but didn’t have much success, having 2338 runs averaging 30.76. Apart from this, he played for two defunct IPL sides in his four-year career (2008 to 2011), i.e Deccan Chargers and Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Since his retirement, the 49 year old has mostly worked as commentary before replacing Rahul Dravid as NCA head in 2021.
Since then, whenever Dravid has been rested alongside senior players for a series or two, Laxman has taken charge of the team. Apart from this, he even coached the 2022 U19 World Cup winning side in the West Indies. Notably, after the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023, the team will play a T20I series against Australia, in a build up to the T20 World Cup 2024 in West Indies and USA.
As the senior players are expected to be rested due to schedule constraints, Laxman is reported to take over as the head coach for the series. Meanwhile, a lot of his fans will always remember his heroics for India in red ball cricket for 16 years.
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