VVS, the Australia specialist

Before the Delhi Test began, there was the odd story doing the rounds that India might jettison a batsman and play five bowlers instead. The man supposedly in line for the chop was VVS Laxman, which really tells you all you need to know about how cricket-savvy some journalists are. Frankly, dropping Laxman against Australia made about as much sense as asking Shane Warne to sit out against the English. As Adam Gilchrist said with something approaching awe after witnessing a glorious 178 at the SCG in January 2004, "VVS seems extraordinary each time we play him. We can't work out why he then goes away, and is left out of the team."

Extraordinary is certainly an appropriate description for batsmanship that has now fetched him 2077 runs at 54.65 in 23 Tests against Australia. Six of his 13 centuries have come against them, and four of the five highest Indian partnerships against Australia feature the man who was renamed Very Very Special by Ian Chappell.

As much as the runs he has scored, Laxman has disconcerted Australia with the sheer fluency of his strokeplay. It's hard to think of another batsman who has played the bottom-hand shots with such impeccable timing. Time and again during this double-hundred, Laxman could spot the ball on or outside off stump and twirl his bat to send it speeding through midwicket. Two or three times, the fielder escorted the ball all the way to the rope.

He pierced the field 21 times during his innings, no mean feat given the conservative fields employed, and it wasn't until Shane Watson was brought on well into the afternoon that some semblance of sanity was restored to the proceedings. Even then, India managed 317 runs in just 72 overs on the second day before the declaration came.

Next to the beauty of Laxman's batting, Gautam Gambhir's 206 appeared almost utilitarian, but if anything, it would have left more scars on the Australian psyche. The Laxman century is almost obligatory in an India-Australia series, but the think-tank certainly wouldn't have bargained for back-to-back innings of such magnitude from Gambhir. His square-drives and powerful flicks through midwicket inspired passages of play where Indian rattled along at over five an over, and there was real purpose too in the running between wickets.

Stuart Clark reckoned afterwards that Australia had done all they could. Once again though, there was next to no movement in the air or off the pitch, and it wasn't until Simon Katich was brought on in the afternoon that we spotted some sharp turn.

Ricky Ponting bowled himself before bringing on Katich or Watson, a bizarre move by any stretch, and was let down by his two quickest bowlers, Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson, who leaked runs far too easily. Lee was better this morning, but when Laxman gloved one past where second slip might have been, it summed up the series that he's had.

There were enough signs in the 15 overs that Australia's openers survived that spin will be the order of the day as the Test match progresses. Anil Kumble went round the wicket and targetted the rough, while Amit Mishra nearly broke through with a similar delivery that rapped Katich on the pads.

At Mohali, Australia didn't bat with anything like the resolve needed to save the game, and they need at least 400 on the board in the first innings to have any chance of heading to Nagpur with more than a dead rubber at stake. To do that though, they'll have to bat out of their skins against Mishra and the Kotla specialist, Kumble.