Indian cricket has had many great batters in their long history in the sport. Ranging from Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi to Vinoo Mankad, with the 70s and 80s belonging to Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, paving the way for the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, to name a few.
But according to one former legend of the game Brian Lara, the best Indian batter of all time was Sachin Tendulkar, the only cricketer to hit 100 centuries across all formats of the game. “I'm not taking anything away from pre-Sachin time in Indian batting, they had Sunil Gavaskar, Mohammad Azharuddin... (but) when you talk about Indian players in India, there are a number of them who will score a lot of runs against you.
"When they leave India, there are few who would survive and acclimatise to conditions... that's the first thing I saw with Sachin,” Lara said during a chat with FOX Cricket.
Sachin made his India debut at age 16 in Tests, making him the youngest Indian cricketer to debut for the country, a record that is being held to date. Lara shared an anecdote from his first match to highlight why was Sachin the Greatest Indian batter of all time for him.
“Doesn't matter where you took him, doesn't matter the pace of bowler or spin, he had the technique capable of handling everything. I think the Indian public also recognised that. It was his first Test match against Pakistan, where he actually got hit from a short delivery.
"But he got up, he was bleeding as well, he stood up there and he batted. And that's something... that not only Indian batters but a lot of batters around the world would go to the pavilion for treatment. I think he showed a lot of guts.”
“His talent, ability, and technique were something that was picture perfect. He just blossomed into one of the greatest batters of all time. From the age of 16, 24 years of international cricket... that's something very special,” Lara added.
Brian Lara will be a part of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the head coach of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
