‘His situation is like that of Slater and Fredericks’

Laxman is great in Test cricket, he plonks his feet and drives through covers and brings his wristy play to leave the onside field flat-footed. But in one-day arena, at his batting spot, you do not get your scores in fours – you have got to be prepared to accumulate your runs. Laxman’s situation like that of Michael Slater (Australia) and Roy Fredericks (West Indies), the two swashbuckling Test players who did not make an impression in the one-day arena. Slater was very aggressive in Test cricket — but in one-day cricket he somehow wanted to rush up his game still further and complicated things for himself. He made 73 in his first one-day game and it remained his top score in 42 appearances. Similarly Fredericks, a swashbuckling opener, wanted to crack boundaries every second ball. We used to give him a single to third man first ball and then keep him at the other end for next five balls, depriving him of strike and manipulating him to play rashly.