VVS Laxman once had to come out of his shower to bat

VVS Laxman was deemed to be one of the most stylish batsmen in the history of Indian cricket. He is a veteran of 134 Tests and with 17 centuries and 56 half-centuries, he was one of the country’s most successful batsmen. At the first class level, he notched 19730 runs with 55 centuries and played his last international match back in 2012 against Australia at the Adelaide Oval.

His career was pretty eventful mostly because of some herculean knocks he played. Recently, he attended a talk show named Breakfast With Champions, hosted by Gaurav Kapur and went 11 years down the memory lane when India toured South Africa in 2007. In the third Test in Cape Town, Laxman encountered an incident when he had to come out of the shower and go to bat.

The dressing room was tense

“I used to feel fresh, so it was only before I went into bat. What happened was Wasim Jaffer and Viru opened and then Rahul was number three and Sachin was number four and I was slotted at number five. So in the previous evening, Sachin came out for 12 minutes and they were bowled out. He wasn’t allowed to bat for 12 minutes.

The fourth umpire was supposed to come out in the morning and tell Sachin that he can’t bat for 12 minutes, but he didn’t inform. So, when Wasim got out, I went in to take a quick shower and when Rahul went out the second wicket fell immediately. Then the fourth umpire told Sachin that he can’t go for ten minutes and that means I’m supposed to go.

In the meantime, Harbhajan came to me and told that I have to go for batting. He is a fun-loving person and I asked him to wait. It eventually required Sachin to tell me. It was hilarious because of the confusion, but the dressing room was tensed and it was embarrassing as well,” Laxman mentioned.

Laxman couldn’t contribute much with the willow in the match. In the first innings, he was nipped out by Dale Steyn for 13 runs. He succumbed to a shambolic run out in the second innings while attempting for the second run. India folded for 169 runs and lost the Test by five wickets. South Africa also won the series by 2-0 with their earlier victory coming at the Kingsmead Durban.

Here is the video

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