The forgotten warrior
VVS Laxman ( @VVSLaxman281) born on 1974, debut for India on 20th Nov 1996 (age : 22) against SA. The stylish southpaw had a forgetful start to his career where he managed just 626 runs in 16 matches at an avg of mere 24 runs per match. 1/n

The innings
Every great player needs that one innings to change his/her career.
VVS got that innings in his 17th test match -30th innings- 4 years after his debut in Sydney while opening the batting in the 3rd Innings of the match in which India were 402 runs behind Aus. 2/n

The cricketing Trilogy
His 167 didn't save India from the humiliation in that test but "THE INNINGS" did give the Indian team as well as the world cricket arena, its own crafty version of the Dark Knight trilogy.
Laxman Begins
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight Rises
3/n

Laxman Begins Part 1
The elegant Sydney innings was a sneak peek to the dominating batsmen he would be against the spinners. A rumor about @ShaneWarne getting nightmares about Sachin might be true but VVS did make sure Warnie did not dare sleeping. 4/n

Part 2
Warne still fared better against Laxman dismissing him 5 times at an avg of 24 in 11 tests. The other spinner who was equally successful against Laxman was Mendis who dismissed VVS for 6 times. All in all he avgd 58 against spin and 44.58 against pacers since '01. 5/n

The Dark Knight
"THE INNINGS" gave rise to the rivalry between Laxman and the Trans-Tasmanians both home&away. While batting in India's 2nd Innings (3/4th innings of the match). VVS avgd 105 against Aus and 129 against NZ. Overall, he avgd 49 and 58 against Aus&NZ resp. 6/n

The Dark Knight Rises
Although Batman had many qualities, but his rivalry against Joker was cynosure of the trilogy. Vvs experience was akin to Batman. His exploits against Aus attenuated his other achievements. One such was his 3rd/4th innings exploits. 7/n

Kolkata'01,
POSpain'02
Perth'08,
Mohali'10,
Durban'10
Colombo'10
"In jeeto par hume Garv hein".
Now lets add the famous draws of Napier'09, Ahmedabad'10, Wellington '09, Kol'02, Bassettere'06 into the list. what is common? Any guesses? Cuh'mon these are historical games.8/n

Well, I'll answer. @VVSLaxman281. He avgd 76.21 in the team's 2nd innings in matches where Ind won/drew the game. He had the 5th best avg (win/draw) in the world among batsmen who played more than 20 matches. Overall he avgd 48.8 in the 2nd innings just below SG and DilipV 9/n

However, if we consider players who played more than 100 test matches- VVS (48.8) avgs 4th best just below Kallis, Border, Sangakkara. He was the reason why India could travel that extra mile and win tests and series abroad. He made sure team's good work don't bit the dust..10/n

...in the last innings of the test. Something Indian teams of early 90s and our current team have missed. He was indeed the Hero we needed, but didn't deserve. The only statement that I could think of after seeing his collegues avert his names for some 10k club members. 11/n

As Paul Edwards cites in the article. If Dravid is India's go to man to bat for their lives. VVS will be the man they would chose to select to remind those lives were so abundantly worth living.
12/n
'An outstanding player, and an outstanding person' http://www.espn.com/cricket/story/_/id/29135695/paul-edwards-profiles-vvs-laxman