Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, The Leg Spin Wizard Who Rose Fast And Fell Even Faster

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan had a very eventful short international career. Young, prodigious and successful, he appealed to a generation still obsessed with the early charms of television.

In two years he would go from adorable, pocket dynamo poster boy to wasted talent. In hindsight, he would rather not have risen that quickly. He make quite an entrance at a very early age but faltered rather too quickly.

Sivaramakrishnan made his Test debut in 1983 at the age of 17 years and 118 days. He was the youngest Indian Test cricketer till that point of time. He went wicketless but scored 17 runs in the only innings that he played.

Getty Images

He had to wait for his second Test and it finally came against the visiting England. He could make the ball dip sharply late in its flight which often made the dismissed batsman look silly. His 6 for 64 and 6 for 117 helped India to an eight wicket win.

It was India's first win in a Test match since 1981. Sivaramakrishnan took another six wickets in the next innings at Delhi. He took only five more wickets in the series. His fast rise didn't result it in the momentum he would have hoped for.

His next season saw a sudden drop of form. He played a Test in Sri Lanka and two in Australia with little success. That was the end of his Test career. In total, he played 9 Tests, picking up 26 wickets.

When he came through the ranks, he was see as a star who would make the future his own. But he struggled to build on his rapid start and went into oblivion.