While Brian Lara remains the one of the best left-handers to have played the game with a total of 11,953 runs in Test cricket, the West Indies legend had his duels against Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne and Sri-Lankan leg-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. While Warne removed Lara seven times during his Test career, Muralitharan accounted for Lara’s wicket five times in Tests. The former West Indies cricketer has shared whom he rates as the best among Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.
“Shane Warne is the best. He is the best. And you know, I would walk out to bat against Murali and I am confused. You know, I got that 688 runs in three matches and the first half an hour of Murali (bowling), I would be confused. I play a sweep shot down to deep backwards square for a single, you know I play a sweep shot again and then all of a sudden, you know, because the other guys didn’t read him. He is like ‘Oh, take out the no bat pad for Lara. Nothing. Nothing. Let’s move everybody up’. And all of a sudden, the pressure came off. But Murali gave me more pressure than Shane,” Lara said on Stick to Cricket podcast.
Lara, who had amassed 34 centuries and 48 half centuries in Tests, had an average of 124 against Muralitharan in the matches played where he faced the Sri Lankan in his Test career. In comparison, Lara had an average of 71.6 against Warne in Tests he faced Warne. Lara and Warne played in 20 Tests in which both of them played. Lara’s career average of 82.5 against spinners in Tests is the eight-highest by any batsman who has played more than 30 Tests and has a strike rate of 65 and above. Lara credited Shane Warne’s mental toughness as his biggest strength.
“But I would walk out to bat against Shane. The ball would be coming off the middle, every ball, and about 2-3 PM, he just produces this magical delivery or spell. That’s why I rate him higher, because I think he was mentally stronger. And obviously with his bowling attack and the pitches that he bowled on, which favoured, you know, the McGraths and McDermotts, for him to pick up that amount of wickets, very, very special. I think his strength was his mental thing,” Lara added.
A few years ago, Lara had talked about how he also read Warne quite easily. “A lot of people try to read off the pitch. I think that’s a bit too late. So, I’m trying to understand what’s coming out of the bowler’s hand. I read Warnie quite easily. But what made him great was the fact that he never gave up and he was always going to come out and produce something to confuse you,” Lara had told The Telegraph earlier.
Warne too had praised Lara for batting in tough conditions. “Brian, to me, I think if you had to send someone out when you needed 400 to win on the last day and you needed someone to make 200, you’d want Brian to be that guy. He was flamboyant, he was wonderful to watch, he had a real flair about him with that huge back-lift. And he always seemed to hit the gaps – his placement of the ball was something that I thought was pretty special,” Warne had told Cricket Australia.
