VVS Laxman was known for his classy batsmanship and the ability to resurrect the toughest of situations for India, home and away, batting in the middle-order, many a times in invaluable partnerships with the tailenders alongside him.
However, the modest gentleman that he is, Laxman now credits India's former coach John Wright for ensuring the team's bowlers were also given enough time in practice with the bat so that during games they can keep one end tight, and score those important runs.
Wright was coach at the turn of the century when the then captain Sourav Ganguly and other men of great integrity, like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Laxman himself ensured Indian cricket comes out of the dark shadows of the match-fixing saga and helped the sport regain its worth in a country that was turning its head against it with the loss of trust.
"I think I should give credit to John Wright for this where I convinced John Wright that it is very important that we got bowlers who take pride in their batting whether Anil, Harbhajan, Ishant, Zaheer, whoever. We were very fortunate to have those bowlers who took a lot of pride in their batting and bowling," Laxman told India Today.
"John made it a point that each batsman in the team would become a batting coach and a batting partner to one bowler. For me, it was Zaheer Khan," he added. "We had to make sure that after each net session we gave a throw down to the bowlers so they can improve on their skills. Working as a family is very important. and then I also used to have a chat with them saying they were very good."
"So when the challenges started coming by especially against good bowling attacks, I used to give them strike to show my belief and trust their ability. And I used to tell them you are capable of scoring runs. Communication is very important."
Laxman cited the example of his partnership with left-arm pacer RP Singh that helped India win the historic Perth Test in 2008 against the mighty Australians to inform how he would communicate with the tailenders. "I'll give you one instance this was with RP Singh at Perth in 2008. There was Shaun Tait who was the quickest in Australia. Then there was Brett Lee. Mitchell Johnson. As soon as I came in asked RP are you comfortable facing these bowlers and he told me he can face everyone except Brett Lee."
"So, whenever the other bowlers were bowling it was just like a normal partnership with the frontline batsman. But the moment Brett Lee, I took all the strike. And Ultimately RP got 31 runs off that 60ish partnership," he added.
(Inputs from India Today)
