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Laxman career in Jeopardy

dudeurfriend

School Boy/Girl Captain
Laxman is under serious pressure to perform.I think the series against pakistan is the last oppurtunity to prove his mettle with the bat. If laxman does not perform i think young guns like yuvraj or kaif should b given an oppurtunity in the next series :@
 
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Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Oh for crying out loud..

Yuvraj to replace Laxman? Come on. I'm not even going to bother arguing this.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Don't worry. I think he will find his touch in the longer version of the game. But you are right about his career as far as ODIs are concerned. I think the others have overtaken him. And with Sourav having given up the idea of 7 batters, his chances are extremely slim.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
I doubt he was referring to ODIs, since Kaif & Yuvraj are automatic selections. So he obviously means the longer form of the game.

Right?

Mind you I'm not as critical of him in the limited overs game as others are. I don't have that short of a memory.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Jono said:
Mind you I'm not as critical of him in the limited overs game as others are. I don't have that short of a memory.
Even I am not overly critical of his ODI career but at least that does seem to be in jeopardy.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
I am not criticizing Laxman in ODIs. But I just do not see how he can fit into the side ahead of Sourav, Sachin, Dravid, Yuvi, Kaif and Sehwag. Too hard to fit him in and I do not want him as my 12th man either. So.....
 

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
dudeurfriend said:
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I think the series against pakistan is the last oppurtunity to prove his mettle with the bat.
I think no one can question Laxman's mettle with the bat. Absolute brilliant talent. But can even such an awesome talent flirt with the inevitable if he throws his wicket and shows inconsistency over a period? I think not.

Talent wise there is no question about Laxman being in XI. Its not the selector's fault that he missed the 2003 World Cup or people can raise questions about his one day batting.

The best way to silence critics is by performance. Dravid did that in the one day game but I doubt Laxman can do some thing similar.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Laxman is basically a RYTHM & TOUCH player.

Once he is in great touch in tests, he will destroy any bowling in any format. He has hown that repeatedly. His best one day performances have come only when he has been in great test match form.

But if his form is IFFY, he must be immediately taken off from the ODI side and continued in the test squad for some more time for his touch to return
 

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
SJS said:
Once he is in great touch in tests, he will destroy any bowling in any format.
Agreed. But even in tests he has a fallacy. He makes some of the best short innings of 30s and 40s you will ever see and then trhwos his wicket away. Its unpardonable in my opinion. He is indeed a touch player but it does not explain why he should be playing with good foot work in an inning and become totally careless and lose a wicket because of careless lack of foot work.

Its unfortunate how Laxman, being a great talent which he is, cannot come up with the mastery he is capable of. Against an Australian team, he will play so well. Why? Because he gears p to the challenge. Its almost as if he is not as keyed when he loses his wicket. Not tolerable from me who likes batsmen value their wicket.
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
Pratyush said:
Against an Australian team, he will play so well. Why? Because he gears p to the challenge.
because clearly the indian team need more players who score hundreds versus the zimbos and bangers, and then fail against the real teams.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
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.
 
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SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Jono said:
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.
Another thing that is used against him is that once a slip is not required, he isnt great in the outfield. Of course there are someothers including the skipper who arent great shakes either.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
He did take that catch against Zimbabwe in the outfield during the VB Series which won us the game, and saved us from embarassment. That was the same game he took a ripper one handed slips catch and got a ton. He was Superman on his tour to Australia.

However you're right, he's not the best outfield fielder.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Everyone would like to shrug it off as a conspiracy theory but its a fact that if Laxman had as many sponsors backing him as has Yuvraj, he wouldnt be dropped as easily as he is now.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Well that's probably why I'm so perplexed with the criticism Laxman gets. I live in Australia, and am pretty blind to any nepotism that goes on regarding sponsors. Its obvious that players like Sachin and Dravid would be heavily sponsored, however I only became aware of Yuvraj's immense popularity with the sponsors via this message board.

Either way, I'm as much a fan of Yuvraj as Laxman, and believe that he does have great talent (I particularly enjoyed him mauling Australia, and Ian Harvey especially, in the Sydney game of the VB Series where he got his ton) however things do point towards your reason as being a possible truth.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
The amazing thing is that 2004 has been by far Laxman's best year ever in ODI's.!!

Year M Inns NO 50s 100s HS Runs Avg
2001 16 15 1 4 1 101 541 38.64
2002 21 21 1 5 0 99 613 30.65
2003 8 8 0 0 1 102 232 29.00
2004 25 24 4 1 4 131 837 41.85

His career average is just 31. I havent checked the figures but I am sure, even his strike rate has been the highest ever in 2004 !!
 

C_C

International Captain
Laxman's problem is that he doesnt have a good enough strike rate in ODIs and he doesnt rotate strike much, thus building up pressure on other batsmen.
IND cannot afford to carry both Ganguly and Laxman in the ODI squad and my vote goes to Ganguly.
 

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