Trivia

Laxman is a former Indian cricketer and currently a cricket commentator.

In the 1999-2000 season of Ranji Trophy, he broke the record for most runs in a Ranji season when he made 1415 runs, at an average of 108, in just 9 matches notching up eight hundreds.

Laxman made his Test debut in 1996 against South Africa at Ahmedabad, scoring a fifty in the second innings of the match.

Border - Gavaskar Trophy 2000-01: 2nd Test, Day 4 (2001):- VVS Laxman scored an extraordinary knock of 281 in the second innings (following on) when under tremendous pressure and with Australia looking set for a crushing 17th win in a row. He broke Sunil Gavaskar's long standing Indian Test record score of 236*. This remained the highest ever by an Indian until it was eclipsed by Virender Sehwag's triple ton against Pakistan in Multan in March 2004. The innings also contributed to a record partnership of 376 with Rahul Dravid who made 180 and together they survived the whole 4th day.

The 2011-12 test series in Australia was his as well as Sachin Tendulkar's only occasion the two batting legends failed to score a century against the hosts. It was also their last ever tour to the country.

Despite playing 131 tests apart from playing several crucial match winning knocks even in ODIs, Laxman surprisingly never played for India in a World Cup.

First Asian batsman to score 3 centuries in the same edition of the Australian tri-series. He accomplished this feat during the 2003-04 VB Series.

One of the 5 Wisden cricketers of the year, 2002.

Great grandnephew of the second President of India Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.

When minnows Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are excluded, Laxman averaged over 40 in 5 of the 7 nations he toured. However, he scored centuries in only 3 of them namely New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Australia though he did score a match-saving 96 in South Africa.

His match-winning 281 during the epic second test of the 2001-02 Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Kolkata was voted by Wisden as the 6th greatest individual test innings of all-time.

Was bestowed upon with India's fourth highest civilian honour, Padma Shri, in 2011.

Former Australian captain and batting legend Steve Waugh paid rich tributes to Laxman quoting "Getting rid of Sachin is great, but getting the wicket of Laxman is a miracle". The quote's credence can be gauged by the fact that 4 of Laxman's 6 ODI hundreds and 6 of his 17 test centuries were made against Australia when they were the undisputed number one ranked team in either formats of the game.