When VVS Laxman Was In Shower And Sourav Ganguly Had To Bat In His Place
Published - 25 Aug 2020, 06:59 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:33 AM
Test great VVS Laxman was one of the finest top order batsman. He could make the bowlers toil entire day looking for his wicket. Aakash Chopra, in a video shared on Facebook, also spoke about one of the peculiar habits that VVS Laxman had as the batting great used to consider playing cricket as a form of worship.
Chopra said that VVS Laxman had the habit of taking shower before going out to bat and in a match he missed out on his batting due to the same. When Laxman was taking shower, the wickets of Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer fell in quick succession, and he was not back to take on the field.
“It is said that work is worship and for cricketers work is playing, so that becomes our worship. If not for anyone else, for VVS Laxman cricket was no less than a worship. And before any prayer, taking a bath is essential.”
“So VVS picked up his towel and went into the dressing room shower. We were playing South Africa in the picturesque ground of Cape Town. The situation in the Indian dressing room had turned bad with Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer already back in the pavilion.”
Sachin Tendulkar was supposed to go at No.4 with Sourav Ganguly the only option left for Team India. And the chaotic moment in South Africa saw everyone hurriedly giving Ganguly his trousers, shirt and pad to prepare him to go out to bat.
“Now with VVS taking bath, Dada was the only person left to go the middle. Sourav Ganguly, who was not ready at all for his batting. So someone was giving Dada his shirt, someone his trouser and another person getting his bat. And two players were making him wear his pads.”
“In between all this hurry, finally Dada was made to enter the field. And Laxman was coming out smiling from the shower. VVS bhai, your batting came and went as well without you going onto the pitch. Something like that might have happened for the first time in cricketing history.”
Laxman has played many match winning knocks for India. One of the famous ones came in Kolkata back in 2001 where he scored 281 runs to save India from the jaws of defeat againsst a dominating Australian side.
Laxman retired with 8781 runs from 134 Test with an average over 45. He hit 17 centuries and 56 half-centuries in his career.
