Wisden’s Test innings of the 2000s, Nos.5-1

The Wisden Test innings of the 2000s have been announced. Below is the full list from No.5 to No.1 of the knocks to make the cut.

No.5: Virender Sehwag 201* (231 balls)

Sri Lanka v India, 2nd Test
Galle International Stadium, Galle
July 31-August 3, 2008

Virender Sehwag’s extraordinary ability to build monumental innings at breathtaking pace puts him in a rare category of genius. It was astonishing enough when he did it in conducive conditions, but when he did it on unplayable tracks, we knew we were witnessing a special human being at work.

No.4: Graeme Smith 154* (246 balls)

England v South Africa, 3rd Test
Egbaston, Birmingham
July 30-August 2, 2008

England had spent three and a bit days clawing out an advantage, only for Smith to win the game in two sessions. Vaughan was in tears, the captaincy was Pietersen’s, and Biff was just getting started.

No.3: Ricky Ponting 156 (275 balls)

England v Australia, 3rd Test
Old Trafford, Manchester
August 11-15, 2005

Steve Waugh billed it Ricky Ponting’s graduation to Test captaincy. For a skipper with an unmatched Test record, Ponting’s magnum opus, surprisingly, came in a draw, but it was his remarkable tenacity that single-handedly kept the 2005 Ashes level after the third Test.

No.2: Kevin Pietersen 158 (187 balls)

England v Australia, 5th Test
The Oval, London
September 8-12, 2005

“I remember reading on the back of one of the papers that morning that England needed a hero,” the protagonist later wrote. “I decided that I was going to be that hero.”

No.1: VVS Laxman 281 (452 balls)

India v Australia, 2nd Test
Eden Gardens, Kolkata
March 11-15, 2001

Had 281 not happened, perhaps India would have been stuck in the nineties. They were a fine team at home, yes, but the age-old struggle overseas still plagued them. Perhaps without Kolkata 2001 they would never have acquired that appetite for a fight, to scrap it out, a feature that defined them in the Noughties.

“It changed our mindset as a team,” Laxman told Wisden India in 2013. “It instilled in us the belief that we must never give up. If 167 [at Sydney in 2000] changed the way I viewed cricket, 281 altered the cricket world’s perception of India.”