“He’s not one for masala cricket. We’re sure he’s playing here because he is Hyderabad’s biggest name in cricket,” says a fan at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium.

No big rush

Change, nevertheless, is unavoidable, and the demands of T20 have put Laxman in a position of rare discomfort where his genius — based on respecting the good balls and punishing the bad ones — has had to be shelved. “I scored 37 off 26 balls,” he said ahead of one of his recent games.

If anything, it was embarrassing to hear that from a batsman who has given the mighty Australians sleepless nights. In their last home game, he cracked 48 off 34 balls, and in the one after that — away in Bangalore — he got 52 off 44. Journalists on both occasions amused themselves by checking if the Hyderabadi had ever scored faster.

The good thing about the runs he has scored is that he hasn’t fallen into the mindless hitting trap. He’s spent most of his career proving he could fit into one-day cricket as well. This, for him, is just another challenge. And while he’ll be desperate to set the record straight over the next one month, the Hyderabadi in him won’t be in a big hurry to do it.