We Have The Potential To Bounce Back: Laxman

NOTTINGHAM: India's middle-order batsman VVS Laxman insists the world No.1 Test side will bounce back in the four-match Test series against England.

As India head into the second Test starting on Friday at Trent Bridge, Laxman said India, who are known as slow starters, have always done well despite losing the first Test in the past series.

"We have the potential to bounce back and we have done that in the past," Laxman was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph. "We lost badly against South Africa in Centurion but came back strongly to draw the Test series for the first time on South African soil," he said.

India suffered a humiliating innings and 25 runs defeat in the first Test at the Centurion but came strongly back to win the second Test in Durban by 87 runs while the third and the final Test in Cape Town ended in a draw.

Laxman hoped that India would put up a good show at Trent Bridge, where they won the second Test match in 2007 to win the 2007 series.

The stylish Hyderabadi batsman does not want to think too much about England bowlers, who played a crucial role in the team's 196-run win over India in the Lord's Test.

"I would not put much importance on the way English bowlers bowled. They just bowled at good areas, they got their wickets and rewards. It was not an exceptional bowling attack where they ran through our batting. Had they got us within 150 in both the innings, then I would have accepted that they ran through our batting attack," he said.

Laxman insists that England benefited from injuries to key Indian players, especially pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who could bowl just 13.3 overs in the match after pulling up his hamstring in the first session on the opening day.

"The difference was the 150-120 runs extra that we gave to England and it was due to the absence of Zaheer Khan. If we had a third regular seamer or someone like Zaheer, who would have run through their batting, the results would have been different."

"We had them at 65 for five and if we had one more fresh bowler, we would have probably bowled them out and then we had to chase something around 260-280 which we would have done easily," said Laxman, whose majestic 281 in the second Test against Steve Waugh's Australia at Eden Gardens in the 2001 is now a folklore in Indian cricket.

India won the match following-on and a Daily Telegraph panel comprising Geoffrey Boycott, Michael Vaughan and Waugh chose the match as the best Test match of all time.

Recalling the match, Laxman said: "To be very honest, when we went into third day's afternoon, when Steve put us in following on, the opening partnership between (Sadagopan) Ramesh and (Shiv Sundar) Das laid the foundation for us."

"And when I walked in on third day evening, I never thought about a turnaround in the Test match. We went out with mind-set to play each ball to its merit and prolong the game as long as possible."

Laxman said he was disappointed missing out on a triple century, but he would cherish the dismissal of Glenn McGrath the last wicket to fall.

"I was disappointed at not getting 300 but saying that McGrath's lbw moment is something we all cherish in our career," he said.