SJS said:
Even I am not overly critical of his ODI career but at least that does seem to be in jeopardy.
Can't disagree with that, however my personal belief is that his ODI career
shouldn't be in jeapody.
At the start of 2004, Laxman's spot in the ODI team was solid. There's no questioning that. The way the Indian selectors and fans have acted
since then suggests that Laxman has had a terrible 2004. However this is far from the case.
In 2004 Laxman scored 837 runs at an average of 41.85, with four 100s and one 50. Two of those 100s came against Australia in the VB Series, and one came against Pakistan in the decider of the best of 5 ODI series.
One common criticism of Laxman is his slower scoring rate (its not slow, its just slower compared to other explosive players). His two hundreds against Australia were 103 off 113 and 106 off 130. Not a Gilchrist or Tendulkar ODI 100, but that's not his role in the team. His role in the ODI team was to come in at 3 and bat throughout the innings in solid fashion. He did that quite well. His 107 against Pakistan came off 104 balls.
In the last ODI he played, he scored 43 against Pakistan off 44 balls. Its clear he was dropped because of his test form, and though I agree with SJS that he is a rhythm player, and his lack of test form is likely to carry over to his ODI form, dropping him from the squad against Bangladesh was hardly deserved.
Tendulkar's average in 2004 was 40.60, Ganguly's was 32.66, Dravid's was 39.42 and Sehwag's was 25.81. That's generally the top 5. Granted Laxman's second half of the year wasn't as good as his first, but he was still a solid ODI player who outperformed the rest of the team. Yes numbers and averages dont tell the whole story, but those figures indicate that he played quite well. There's no doubt that India had a pretty poor year in ODIs, especially in the second half. But my question is why was Laxman singled out. He's younger than Dravid, Ganguly and Sachin, so its no 'Aussie like" lets bring in the youth and take out the old. Its simply because of this belief that he cant score quickly, and due to his poor test form.
The only reason I could see justifying Laxman being removed from the ODI team is that Kaif, who has been in great form lately, plays a game similar to that of Laxman, and if India are smart enough to take the 6 batsman route rather than 7, obviously either Yuvraj, Kaif or Laxman are the ones that would be in crisis. With Kaif's form, Laxman is thus under pressure.
I understand that Laxman has been in poor form, there's no doubting it. The only thing that bugs me is that he's being singled out in ODIs when everyone else has performed sub-par in the latter part of 2004.