West Indies great Brian Lara believes Indian skipper Virat Kohli and his English counterpart Joe Root are the best batsmen in the world right now.
Brian Lara, who has played 131 Tests and 299 ODIs for West Indies, made the remark while taking part in the Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session. Brian Lara is currently in New York as part of International Cricket Council World Cup Trophy Tour.
When Lara was asked to pick the best bowler in the world, he picked the fast bowler duo of Jimmy Anderson and Kagiso Rabada.
Talking about the toughest bowlers he has faced, 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. 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 added.
The 49-year-old also backed ICC’s decision for a ten-team ODI World Cup. Brian Lara said the T20 format would help in the growth of cricket as it was the most exciting format of the game.
“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,” Lara said.
“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,” he added.