VVS Laxman revisits his match-winning innings in the first Test against Australia in Mohali in an interview in Sportstar.

At 124 for eight India was staring at defeat. What was your honest impression then?

Yes, two mistakes and we would have lost the Test. But, I must reassert that more than my innings, Ishant's knock was very important and valuable in the final analysis. As a batsman I was supposed to bat well, but being a bowler and on a heavy dose of injections to alleviate the pain in the leg, I think Ishant did a fantastic job. He showed great character and temperament under intense pressure.

Writing in the Sportstar, S Ram Mahesh says that tours of South Africa, England, Australia and West Indies beckon, and how India handles its young batsmen during this period, and how they grow under the mentorship of Dravid, Tendulkar, and Laxman, will determine if India remains a main-event contender.

Heartening as it may be, it's nonetheless surprising that young Indian batsmen have, in the recent past, shown the stomach for Test cricket. Surprising for a variety of reasons. The development of batsmen chases the development of bowlers just as reaction follows creation — bowling, which remains cricket's only act of formation, dictates the batting that counters it, and there has been nothing by way of empirical evidence to suggest India's bowling, domestically, has improved in the 2000s, the period of incubation for the current batting generation

Walking towards the government headquarters in Bangalore, to catch a glimpse of the unfolding political drama, Ramachandra Guha instead chose to go to the Chinnaswamy stadium to watch, as he writes in the Telegraph another, and indubitably more appealing, drama about to unfold.

In the first over of the third day, Tendulkar played two late leg-glances to get to his half-century. Then he hit two lusty pulls off Mitchell Johnson, Australia’s fastest bowler, and a man reckless enough to announce before the series began that the Indians were suspect against the short ball

I learnt from the next day’s papers that the last stages of his innings had been watched by, among others, the leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka state assembly, the Congress politician, A. Siddaramiah. That morning, Siddaramiah had gone to work hoping that the BJP government would be voted out, and that he would stake a claim to be chief minister. The plan was foiled when, with the aid of the police, the speaker enforced his decision to disqualify the defecting legislators.The thwarted leader now chose to leave for the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where, since Tendulkar was still at the crease, he knew he would find pleasure — and consolation.

Ron Reed writes in the Herald Sun that there is now no doubt that Sachin Tendulkar is the game’s second-best cricketer of all-time.

Tendulkar's most ardent fans - and no sportsman in the world is worshipped by more people - are now starting to give voice to the ultimate sacrilege by suggesting Sir Donald Bradman is not necessarily out on his own any more. That debate has been revived again this week as Tendulkar put Australia to the sword, yet again, relentlessly moving further and further past all of the The Don's numbers except the one that stands as the noble old game's greatest icon - his batting average, 99.94.

Tendulkar's is now 56.96, so Bradman is just as uncatchable as always, and as always will be. But by just about every other statistical measurement - and by less tangible methods of recognising genius, such as aura, style and dominance - the pride of India is leaving all other challengers behind.

Ricky Ponting’s captaincy is being questioned again, but the Sydney Morning Herald’s Jamie Pandaram says it’s “crazy talk”.

You could not drop Ponting as the skipper unless you were also dropping him from the side. He is the strongest character in the team by far, he cannot be captained by someone else - imagine what that would do to the dynamic of the dressing room?

On Back Page Lead, Jon Pierik says, "Ponting remains the right man to lead Australia into battle against England this summer, for, let's face it, there are few options."

October 9, 2005 was a tragic day for Cheteshwar Pujara, a day his mother lost her battle with cancer. Five years later, he made his Test debut in Bangalore, playing a critical role in India's chase to seal the series 2-0. His success, in an age where rewards appear disproportionate to ability, is a refreshing sign. Anand Vasu, in the Hindustan Times, has more.

Chintu, as Cheteshwar is known to his friends and family, had made a name for himself on the biggest stage in cricket. At a time when most young cricketers worship fast cars, multi-crore contracts and the assorted trappings of fame, an unassuming young man from a cricketing backwater made the grade.

The soft-spoken Cheteshwar, his father assures us, still does puja every day, offering prayers to his favourite deity. On Wednesday, some of those prayers were answered.

David Lloyd, writing in the Independent, says Australia's 0-2 defeat at the hands of India lends strength to the theory that Ricky Ponting's team is one on the decline than one in transition. What does this mean for the Ashes? Lloyd says England should go in to the tour expecting to win.

Not since the late 1980s, when West Indies could still field an attack made up of four fabulous fast bowlers, have Australia been beaten in three consecutive Tests. And, having led the Test rankings for so long that no one bothered looking at them for several years, Ponting's team are down to fifth place – one spot below England. No wonder we can hear the knives being sharpened, and there are likely to be some wounding comments over the next few days.

However, Nasser Hussain says that despite having lost their aura, Australia will not be easy to beat in home conditions. Having played a tough series against India will give them an edge in preparation, he writes in the Daily Mail.

When you come home from the subcontinent and play in familiar surroundings again, you feel like a million dollars, because the cricket out there is so tough.

Australia's bowlers have gone through a lot having bowled against an excellent Indian batting line-up on flat pitches, whereas England have prepared by knocking over Bangladesh and a weak Pakistan side in friendly conditions. The Aussies will feel life is about to get easier; England may have a different view.

There are few things in sport more fascinating than the decline of a dynasty, writes Simon Briggs in the Daily Telegraph. Now, as results fall away around him, Ponting finds himself cast in an unenviable role of the last emperor of Australian cricket, he says.

In his six-hour association with Sachin Tendulkar, M Vijay, who was five when his partner made his Test debut, probably learnt more about batsmanship, about Test cricket itself than in all his previous matches put together, and you cannot put a price on that kind of lesson, writes Suresh Menon on ESPNStar.

Vijay does not have Dravid's technique, but seems to have his temperament which might pay more. There is a tendency to commit to the front foot which might see him in trouble on quicker tracks or when the ball is swinging. There is an unfortunate preference to playing across the line even in defence - probably a legacy of limited-overs cricket. But there is too a wonderfully wristy on-drive, and a joy at lofting the ball over the fence that will ensure there are no long periods of scorelessness. Some of these innovations one hears were the result of a chat with a former player who gave him the practical advice that strike-rates are important in modern Test cricket.

In the Australian, Peter Lalor describes how the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, like every other venue in India, erupts whenever Sachin Tendulkar walks out with bat in hand.

There is something about the Bangalore's M Chinnaswamy that amplifies sound. It comes up from the concrete bleaches, hits the high tin roofs and bounces back down, physically assaulting the ear drums. It's cicada sharp. Tinny and high-tensile. Ten fans can make the sound of a thousand anywhere else ...

... Then Sachin emerges with a blade in each hand and the decibel level goes through the roof. Surely it carries to Delhi's empty stadiums.

Ricky Ponting entered to jeers and departed to cheers on the first day of the Bangalore Test. Between times he played exactly the composed and business-like innings his team needed, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

All things considered, Ponting deserved better than the hostile reception received on his way to the middle. Between Tests TV channels pounced upon his refusal to promise VVS Laxman a runner in this match. Not that Laxman had asked. Every cricketer knows his opinion was correct. Several respected Indian past players said so. And still the TV channels fed the frenzy. Previously the same channels had berated Ponting for his part in the brief spat with Zaheer Khan in Mohali. That was a mischievous rewriting of events. Every nation has its stirrers. The problem starts when they set the agenda.

Ricky Ponting, in the Australian, reflects on his team's loss in a nail-biter against India in Mohali, one that yet again deprived him of a Test win in the country as captain.

We felt that going into this series that we were as well prepared as we have ever been and I think you could see that in the way we played. You saw it in the bodies and the minds of the guys. Last week was as good a feeling I have seen around the group for a long time. I must say that it hasn't evaporated either. There is still a lot of laughter and, more importantly, intent to play good cricket. It is important after having the stuffing knocked out of us that we find a way to respond.

The only Australia captain to have lost two Ashes series, though those campaigns sandwiched a 5-0 win at home; the only captain since Clive Lloyd to oversee two World Cup wins; a witness to some of Australia's most heart-breaking defeats, from Kolkata through Edgbaston to Mohali - Ricky Ponting has literally seen it all. In his Yahoo blog, Dileep Premachandran charts the landmark moments in Ponting's career as he looks ahead at an uncertain future.

In The English Patient, Katherine Clifton leaves Laszlo Almasy with the words: "From this point on in our lives, we will either find or lose our souls." After a tumultuous five days in Mohali, Ponting, the most decorated cricketer of his generation, might view his leadership in the same light.

Leave out Shane Watson's fruitful run at the top and England become favourites to win the Ashes, writes Lawrence Booth in the Wisden Cricketer. Watson's form, and his alliance with fellow makeshift opener Simon Katich, is working overtime to make up for a middle order that is woefully low on runs.

Since replacing Phil Hughes for the third Ashes Test of 2009, Watson has averaged over 50 as an opener (in seven innings at No 6 he has averaged 24; in six innings at No 7, just 14). He may yet go down as Australia’s best right-handed opener since David Boon. But it is his unlikely alliance with Katich – biffer and nurdler, He-Man and man’s man – that is currently papering over Australia’s batting cracks.

In the Hindustan Times, Anand Vasu pays tribute to VVS Laxman after his match-winning knock in the nail-biter against Australia. Laxman, he says, may perhaps not match the stardom of some of his other team-mates but he commands the greatest respect from the best teams in the world.

The question that should be asked is not how much, but how. Who scores runs against the best team in the world, when the pressure is the greatest, and turns near-certain defeat into glorious victory? Laxman has come to India’s rescue with such regularity that on the eve of the final day, when Ricky Ponting sat down to eat dinner, it was Laxman who occupied his thoughts.

Australia's performance in the Mohali Test has been both heartening and deeply worrying, writes Malcolm Knox in the BackPageLead. While they have shown a promising resilience, a lack of planning, and persistence with a batting line-up in their mid-30s could come back to haunt them.

In recent lost series, such as the 2009 Ashes, it has only taken one bad session to undo Australia. Andrew Flintoff at Lord’s and Stuart Broad at The Oval pretty much stole the urn with two spells. This was very uncharacteristic of a contemporary Australian team, and the most concerning feature of their defeat

VVS Laxman continues to be Australia's nemesis © Associated Press

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck has praise for VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma and the Australian team, which tried its utmost but fell short in the nailbiting match in Mohali.

Laxman was the key figure on the final day. All things seem possible whilst he remains at the crease. Australians and tension bring out the best in him. Romps in the park make him appear humdrum. Here he produced an astonishing array of strokes, pulls played without footwork, caresses through cover, flicks off his hip and all the while he kept his head.

VVS Laxman has been a thorn for Australians for more than a decade now. Dileep Premachandran wonders in the Guardian whether they have taken to calling him Very Very Sickening after another Laxman masterclass denied them victory.

In crisis situations that paralyse others, Laxman manages to bat with a composure and elegance that must be soul-destroying for the opposition. Others cramp up with nervous excitement. He strokes the ball into the gaps. As Zaheer Khan, an odd choice as man of the match following India's single-wicket win over Australia, said afterwards Laxman brings calm to the dressing room.

On his BBC blog, Soutik Biswas calls Laxman "an elegant anachronism in an age of fast-food cricket".

Laxman belongs to what is popularly called the Fab Four of Indian cricket. If the genius of Sachin Tendulkar is its Paul McCartney, the iconoclasm and flamboyance of - the now retired - Saurav Ganguly its John Lennon. If the maestro of the backbeat, Rahul Dravid, is its Ringo Starr, then VVS must be its George Harrison, weaving some wondrous and beautiful innings that have held together some of India's best performances and his own.

While lauding Laxman for yet another match-winning innings, Ravi Shastri also has words of praise in the Deccan Herald for Ricky Ponting, since the Australian captain allowed Laxman a runner in both innings.

And all this due to the generosity of a man who isn’t viewed as fair by most Indian fans. Ricky Ponting was judged as inflammatory in Sydney. He wasn’t seen as courteous in getting the then BCCI chief down the podium after the Champions Trophy triumph in 2006.

In Mohali, though, he allowed Laxman with a runner in both the innings. He had made a public pledge to restore game’s dignity after the unsavoury episodes of recent times. The Australian skipper was as good as his word.

Rahul Dravid has never been tabbed as a limited overs player, despite scoring over 10,000 runs in ODIs. His batting, with its languid grace, has always been best suited to the Test arena. Yet, writing in the Age, Peter Roebuck credits Twenty20 - cricket’s shortest format - for rejuvenating Dravid’s career.

Obligated to represent Bangalore by contract and by a sportsman's natural desire to be in the thick of the action, Dravid initially looked as comfortable as a virtuoso singing hip-hop. Indeed, he could easily have walked away. Instead he developed a variety of improvised strokes, and before long was playing his part in his team's triumphs.

Nor is he not the first frozen batsman to be defrosted by the lighter version of the game. Suddenly, he was hitting the ball again, and scampering between wickets and clouting rude boundaries. Confidence returned. Perhaps, too, he remembered that cricket is just a game. He scored runs in the Ranji Trophy, and returned to Test cricket with his game in good working order. It had always been his way to think himself out of trouble. Sometimes blasting works better.

Daniel Brettig writes for Australian Associated Press how Zaheer Khan has been a source of irritation for the Australians for several years. After Zaheer's latest run-in - with captain Ricky Ponting - Bretting traces how Zaheer has grown since his nervous first over in the 2003 World Cup final.

For a long time Zaheer was the sort of player the Australians felt they had the measure of.

He had ability, sure, but he could be "got at", and was always destined to finish second-best against opposite numbers the quality of Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie.

Still, Zaheer maintained his aggressive postures, and over time he improved as a bowler while the Australians lost a little of their superiority.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that despite the series being only two Tests and beginning in a venue lacking the charm of India's traditional grounds, the India-Australia series should be a corker.

It's been a long time since these sides produced a dull day let alone a dull match. India's brilliant and apparently ageless batting order counts among the game's treasures. The Australians are renowned for their refusal to buckle. It is a clash that often turns into a confrontation, a battle of wills that draws the best from all involved.

Immense talent is on display. India's order includes arguably the finest attacking opener the game has known, a capable lefty, a staunch and skilful first drop, a champion, a dazzler, a dashing youth and a personable leader. Add an attack that includes a lefty as feisty as Clyde Cameron and two bowlers who have often troubled the visiting captain and the picture forms of a formidable host team that deserves and, regardless of the result, will retain its position at the top of the Test rankings.

Ricky Ponting writes in his column in the Australian that the experienced and formidable Indian batting line-up will prove a challenge for his bowling line-up. Ponting, though, was satisfied with the form of most of his bowlers during the warm-up match against Board President's XI.

Ben Hilfenhaus took five wickets in the first innings and looks to be in great form. Mitchell Johnson bowled very well too ... Spin is important in India as everybody knows and Nathan Hauritz didn't get a great return, but it was important for him to get out there and find his rhythm after being out of the game with injury.

In the Herald Sun, Daniel Brettig reports on Johnson's new-found maturity and confidence with the press, not least his cunning targetting of Virender Sehwag:

Speaking to the Indian media, he waited patiently for a question about which local batsman he would target, before lobbing a grenade the way of Virender Sehwag. Cue global headlines about Sehwag's vulnerability to the short ball, and a happy Johnson after making his own point at the outset of a series in which he will lead the Australian attack.

Andy Bull, in his Spin blog for the Guardian, terms it a sin to look at the India-Australia series as a pre-cursor to the Ashes. He also notes that Australia's young seam attack is an indication of changing selectorial norms, from the days when the players broke into the national team closer to the age of 30.

If only the series lasted longer than two Tests, then we may have had a chance to unravel some of these threads. As it is we will still get to enjoy some of the other captivating clashes that the series will throw up. Fitness allowing, Harbhajan Singh will resume his old duel with Ponting. Nobody has dismissed Ponting more times in Test cricket than Harbhajan. Will Ponting be able to keep pace with Sachin Tendulkar? Or will the series confirm the impression formed over the last two years that Sachin has pulled head-and-shoulders clear of the Australian captain as the outstanding batsman of this generation? Will Johnson and Bollinger be able to follow up on their public promises to tame Virender Sehwag by bombarding him with short deliveries? Will either Steve Smith or Nathan Hauritz be able to break through and nail down a place as Australia's first-choice spinner?

Australia's Test battle against India is the premier contest in the modern game and their upcoming two-Test series is likely to be a closely-fought affair. Dileep Premachandran looks back at Australia's most recent tours to India, in his column in the National.

By the next time he played there, in 2001, Steve Waugh was such a hero that the applause he received for his century made the Indian players stare at each other quizzically. By the third evening, Waugh’s all-conquering side, chasing a 17th successive Test win, were well on course, still 20 runs ahead with just six Indian wickets to take.

By the next afternoon, we were all going through the record-books and contemplating the unthinkable. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid didn’t just bat through the day; they broke Australia’s spirit.

The mood of the crowd too had changed. Subdued in the face of imminent defeat in the morning, there were as loud as could be by afternoon. By the time Laxman went past Sunil Gavaskar’s 236 – then the highest score by an Indian in Tests – the crescendo was such that you could not hear the person next to you speak.