• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Laxman

Sanz

Sanz

Hall of Fame Member
flibbertyjibber said:
We all know he is a quality player but has he done himself justice over his career as he only has 16 centuries in 123 matches which for a player of his ability is pretty poor really. His conversion rate is basically the worst among players with more than 10 test tons currently playing.

Laxman 123 tests 16 100's 52 50's
Sehwag 87 22 + 27
Tendulkar 177 51 + 59
Dravid 153 32 + 60
Bell 65 14 + 28
Cook 68 18 + 26
Strauss 85 19 + 24
Pietersen 74 17 + 23
Ponting 152 39 + 56
Hussey 59 13 + 24
Clarke 69 14 + 20
de Villiers 66 12 + 23
Kallis 145 40 + 54
Smith 91 22 + 29

The top players are getting centuries roughly once every 4 games with Tendulkar doing it more often yet Laxman it is closer to every 8th match than 7 even. Surely a player of his ability should have got at least 25 test hundreds in the amount of games he has played.

Am i being ridiculously harsh on him here as i am sure many Indians would argue Laxman is a better player than many on that list yet the stats don't really back it up.
Click to expand...
To answer your question, I think you are being slightly harsh on him. Lax batted @ No. 5-6 for majority of his test career, it would be unfair to compare him with an opening or some top order bat. I would like to see how he compares to a lower middle order batsman.

Also, early in his career VVS was so unstable that I really ignore first four years of his career and only start counting his performances from the Day Ganguly became Indian captain.
 
Top_Cat

Top_Cat

Request Your Custom Title Now!
haha @ Marc. Nice.

Regarding Laxman, he's had awesome numbers in the past couple of years, might finally be harnessing that consistency he's been missing for so long. Big wicket.

And as far as Australia goes, to me the signs were there even earlier than 2000. I remember seeing him on debut in '98 when he opened with Sidhu and thinking "Uh oh." when he scored 90'-odd. Wasn't just that he was an awesome bat but that he absorbed the sledging so well and then punished the next ball. When you see a player like that, you know no matter how well he's doing against other teams, he'll punish the Aussies because even if totally out of the form, the sledging fires him up.
 
Last edited:
Uppercut

Uppercut

Request Your Custom Title Now!
You wonder why they didn't just adopt a stfu policy to the guys who obviously played much better when sledged.
 
Top_Cat

Top_Cat

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Aside from the fact it'd be near-impossible to shut up McG and Warne, they did with Laxman eventually. Even when he was guiding India to a win last year, barely a word was spoken to him so they let fly at Ishant instead. Unfortunately, they went too far and Laxman fired-up anyway because of the bullying.

Can't win against a **** like that.
 
H

hang on

State Vice-Captain
lovely thread.

actually surprised to see the excellent conversion rates of cook and kp in there along with strauss and smith.

was wondering if laxman would be in the top 10 batsmen who have played the most classic or influential or memorable knocks (not only centuries). lara would be up there. bradman too. richards? hobbs? sobers? gavaskar? not really sure....
 
Burgey

Burgey

Request Your Custom Title Now!
hang on said:
lovely thread.

actually surprised to see the excellent conversion rates of cook and kp in there along with strauss and smith.

was wondering if laxman would be in the top 10 batsmen who have played the most classic or influential or memorable knocks (not only centuries). lara would be up there. bradman too. richards? hobbs? sobers? gavaskar? not really sure....
Click to expand...
He's certainly a classical player to watch. Very elegant.
 
flibbertyjibber

flibbertyjibber

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Burgey said:
He's certainly a classical player to watch. Very elegant.
Click to expand...
Him, Vaughan and Mark Waugh are 3 of my all time favourites as they just looked so good when batting well. Not too many of them around these days with so much power hitting going on.
 
Sanz

Sanz

Hall of Fame Member
Uppercut said:
You wonder why they didn't just adopt a stfu policy to the guys who obviously played much better when sledged.
Click to expand...
Because that was the character of the team and not a policy as part of their strategy to win.
 
Jono

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Ultimately you play cricket to win games for your country/team. Laxman has done that.

I was chatting to a mate the other day who brought up a comment about how Zaheer's career stats will not properly show what a bowler he has been in the last 2-3 years. I said it doesn't really matter, as Zaheer has played a part in bringing his team to no. 1 in tests and winning a World Cup. Surely that's more important.

I'd have thought the same goes for Laxman. It'd be nice if he cashed in more and averaged higher/had more centuries, but you'd rather he pull off Durban and Mohali 2010 performances and not get a century, then get a ton which didn't have as much of an effect on the result.
 
Uppercut

Uppercut

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Luckily for England they found his one weakness- compulsively hooking long-hops to fielders.
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
You honestly don't expect someone batting so low or with the tail so often as Laxman to get centuries regularly, do you? A lot of the best innings, as said earlier, have been those between 50 and 100, and he's also built several huge partnerships. Any partnership with Laxman has helped India. An excellent player of all styles of bowling, he's often rescued India from difficult positions, and it is unfortunate he wasn't considered a limited-overs regular, with a whole lot of so-called ODI specialists who lacked depth and quality picked ahead of him.
 
TT Boy

TT Boy

Hall of Fame Member
Arjun said:
You honestly don't expect someone batting so low or with the tail so often as Laxman to get centuries regularly, do you? A lot of the best innings, as said earlier, have been those between 50 and 100, and he's also built several huge partnerships. Any partnership with Laxman has helped India. An excellent player of all styles of bowling, he's often rescued India from difficult positions, and it is unfortunate he wasn't considered a limited-overs regular, with a whole lot of so-called ODI specialists who lacked depth and quality picked ahead of him.
Click to expand...
He bats 5, doesn't he? Ian Bell has batted 5 in 17 test matches and scored 5 centuries. AB de Villiers has scored 6 centuries in the 21 times he has batted 5 also. Doesn't seem to be too low for those guys to convert.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Top