Laxman plays a cover drive

But, with India 1-0 down in the series and following on at Calcutta, Laxman was joined by Rahul Dravid and the two turned a desperate situation into a partnership of 376.

Laxman compiled 281, his shots thundering against the boundary hoardings on 44 occasions.

Suddenly, this elegant right-hander with a remarkable record in domestic cricket was demonstrating his talents in full on the world stage for the first time. And he was doing so against the best bowling attack in world cricket.

India ultimately came back to clinch the series 2-1, but Harbhajan Singh's later success would have been in vain but for Laxman's heroics at Eden Gardens.

Mark Butcher

Mark Butcher began 2001 in a sorry mental state. He had split up from his wife and found himself on the verge of being dropped into the Surrey second XI.

Butcher was England's Man of the Series

Injury to Graham Thorpe, however, ensured he kept his place, and when neither Thorpe nor Michael Vaughan could get themselves fit, he was suddenly back in the Test side.

England lost the first three Tests to relinquish the Ashes once again, but the spirit of Headingley 1981 was in the air when the players moved to Leeds for the fourth Test.

And with 315 needed on the final day, Butcher - who had been serving notice that a big innings was within his grasp - cut, pulled and drove McGrath and co. to submission hitting 173 not out in front of a full house as England won the match.

Adam Gilchrist

Gilchrist was one of the first to applaud Butcher at Headingley, and later told journalists it was the finest Test innings he had ever seen.

Gilchrist produced an astonishing assault

But the tone of the Ashes had been set by Australia's wicketkeeper-batsman in the Edgbaston match at the start of the series.

England had been bowled out for 294 on the first day, and Australia were just building a lead when Gilchrist came in at seven.

First, he put on 160 with Damien Martyn and the match suddenly seemed beyond England. But Gilchrist hadn't had enough.

Australia were losing wickets at the other end, so he tore into England's wilting attack and went to his century with an outrageous upper cut over his keeper.

His final tally of 152 off 143 balls included five sixes and a stand of 63 for the last wicket with Glenn McGrath (one not out.)

Mohammad Ashraful

Test cricket saluted its youngest ever century-maker, Bangladesh's Mohammad Ashraful, in September in a Colombo match won easily by Sri Lanka.

Ashraful revealed a precocious talent

But Ashraful, playing his debut Test, was a revelation.

His side had been bowled out for a paltry 90 in the first innings and Sri Lanka then hit 555 for five declared. The match situation was hopeless for Bangladesh, but the home side never took their foot off the pedal.

Indeed, they were 81 for four when Ashraful came to the wicket as the last recognised batsman.

But first he withheld Muttiah Muralitharan - in the middle of a five-wicket spell on a turning wicket - and later attacked both him and the excellent left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas.

He hit 16 fours in a shade over four hours before finally being dismissed for 114, and did so 63 days after his 17th birthday, just beating the long-standing record set by Mushtaq Mohammed.

Brian Lara

The West Indies were no match for Sri Lanka in the three Tests played in November on the sub-continent.

Lara is back to his brilliant best

And that was despite six innings from Brian Lara of 178, 40, 74, 45, 221 and 130.

The double hundred was the best knock, not only because it was the weightiest score but because it represented comfortably more than half the Windies' first innings total of 390.

And it was also scored while Vaas was taking 14 wickets in the match with balls that virtually every other batsman was powerless to deal with.

Ramnaresh Sarwan crucially made 69 and 66 in the same match, without which Lara would have had no chance of reaching 356 runs in the match.

The less said of the batting efforts of Messrs Ganga, Gayle and Samuels the better.