Brian Lara picks the best batsmen in the world

Lara names Muttiah Muralitharan as the toughest bowler he had ever faced.

Virat Kohli and Joe Root | Getty Images

West Indian legend Brian Lara has named on Wednesday (5 September) Indian captain Virat Kohli and England Test captain Joe Root as two of the World's best batsmen at the moment.

Currently, Lara is in New York as part of ICC World Cup Trophy Tour.  He made the comment while taking part in the Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Wednesday. He also rated James Anderson and Kagiso Rabada the two current best bowlers in the world. 

He also rated Muttiah Muralitharan as the toughest bowler he had ever faced, as well as, picked Australian great Shane Warne as his all-time favourite.

As per reports in Times Now, Lara said, “Muttiah (Muralitharan) always confused me in the early part of our confrontation, whilst Shane Warne didn’t. Having said that, as my innings grew I felt I had more control over Muttiah, whilst Shane seemed to grow in confidence.”

He further added, “They were definitely the two best spinners of my time. He (Warne) played for the best team in the world during my era, he was, and still is, regarded as the best leg-spinner to play the game. It was a battle I just embraced in some of the largest cricketing arenas.”

Lara also backed ICC's decision for a 10 –team World Cup, saying, “The most important thing for the ICC to consider is the growth of the game, where that will happen is in the T20 format. All the countries that are taking to the sport as of late are naturally attracted to T20 format since it's the most exciting.”

He signed off by saying, “Moving on to the longer formats, you want good quality and intense cricket and only the best teams in the world can offer that. Therefore, I feel the number of teams in the World T20 being 16 and the number in the ODI World Cup being 10 is just right.”

 

 
 

By Rashmi Nanda - 06 Sep, 2018

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