Cricket in the late 90s and early 2000s was dominated by two of the batting geniuses, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. The skillset that the two of them had got to score runs heavily in all formats and all conditions was extraordinary.
Anyone who played cricket in that era would have a hard time picking one of the two, simply because both of them were such complete players. It’s not that either of them had any trouble when the pitch was slow or when it was bouncy or when the ball was going sideways or when it was spinning. They could handle it all.
And, Sachin and Lara weren’t just good enough to survive the tough conditions. They had it in them to actually dominate the quality bowlers in tough conditions.
However, recently when the legendary Pakistani fast bowling duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were asked to pick one out of Sachin and Brian Lara, they had no hesitation in picking Lara as they thought the West Indies left-hander played them better as compared to Sachin.
Sachin Tendulkar has got more runs under his belt in test matches and ODI cricket than Brian Lara
Sachin Tendulkar ended up scoring more runs than Brian Lara in both test matches and limited-overs cricket, and he also scored runs in the games against Pakistan in high-pressure situations. No Indian or Pakistani fan can forget Sachin’s knocks in the India Vs Pakistan World Cup games of 2003 and 2011.
Wasim and Waqar were themselves part of the Pakistani bowling unit which took a pounding from Sachin in the 2003 ODI World Cup in South Africa, but they still think it’s Brian Lara who was the better batsman out of the two, which is a bit of a surprise.
Brian Lara, however, was a batting genius in his own rights as he left an everlasting impression on a number of players around the world with his flamboyance and quality. The southpaw has got the highest ever individual score to his name in test match cricket.
