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Why did a fantastic batsman like VVS Laxman bat at number 6? Vvs Laxman is easily the best lower order batter India has produced in Test cricket. He was good against pace, swing and a great player of spin bowling. Most of us would know of his epic 281 against Australia in Kolkata (2001) which is arguably the best knock in tests under certain circumstances. He was a versatile batter. He could hammer the bowling attacks for fun, but also could play the anchoring role to guide the team home. His career didn't pick up as earlier as he would've liked to. He debuted back in 1996, but didn't get the opportunities consistently. He kept on scoring truck loads of runs that he made his way into the side in 1999. Since then there was no looking back to him. 1999 wasn't a great year for him though. But the breakthrough came in 2000 when he smashed his first ever test hundred in Sydney against a quality bowling lineup of Australia. Laxman, known for his versatility, has batted in all positions from opening to no.7 for the various reasons. He was tried as an opener around 1999–2000 but didn't succeed much and was hence asked to bat at various positions in the middle order. Though he batted mostly at no.5 and no.6 in Tests, he was equally capable of batting at any position. Here are his numbers in different batting positions - Opener : 25 innings, 685 runs, 28.54 Average, 1 hundred and 4 fifties. No.3 : 37 innings, 1611 runs, 44.75 Average, 4 hundreds and 8 fifties. No.4 : 11 innings, 500 runs, 50.00 Average, 1 hundred and 4 fifties. No.5 : 74 innings, 2877 runs, 47.16 Average, 6 hundreds and 17 fifties. No.6 : 67 innings, 2760 runs, 50.18 Average, 5 hundreds and 20 fifties. No.7 : 9 innings, 346 runs, 86.50 Average and 3 fifties. One can see that his best performances came as a lower order batter, which proved to be crucial for India as he was deemed to be the ‘Ultimate savior of India' in tests. There are simply not many who could've replicated what VVS did for India lower the order.