Letter of the Day

But why Laxman? Why not Dravid "The Wall" or "Skipper" Ganguly ?

To prove my point here's a list of last 15 innings from India's fab four :

Dravid :

86, 87, 2, 11, 2, 36, 36, 75, 15, 61*, 12, 26, 68*, 44, 4 = 565

Tendullkar:

102, 88, 22*, 1, 15, 155, 69, 20, 36*, 74, 17, 126, 10, 10, 65 = 811

Laxman:

75, 28, 89, 29, 32, 20, 15, 38, 28, 66, 65, 281, 59, 12, 20 = 857

(Point to be noted : Laxman in his last 15 has scored more than even Tendulkar)

Ganguly:

5, 47, 4*, 42, 30, 14, 30, 1, 98*, 18, 4, 15, 0, 9, 5, 4 = 326

Their respective averages are :

Dravid 43, Tendulkar 62, Laxman 57 and Ganguly 25

You might argue that Laxman's average is boosted by the 281 but why take that great innings away from him ? Even if we do, his average is still a healthy looking 41.

True Laxman has been getting starts but is that worse than not getting starts, getting bogged down, creating immense pressure by your obsession with technique, scoring a run every two overs (FYI I am describing Dravid)? Or does being the captain wash away all your sins (scoring at an average of 25 over a long period for a top order batsmen is a criminal offence)?

Azeem Feroze

- 4th Dec - 11th Dec - 13th Dec