'Not taking anything away from Gavaskar, Azharuddin...': WI legend names Sachin Tendulkar greatest-ever India batsman
Sachin Tendulkar received special praise from Brian Lara, who called him one of the greatest batters he had faced during his career.
During a glittering career, Brian Lara faced plenty of world-class cricketers around the world. There were many who caught his eye and some who he felt were extra special. The former Trinidadian cricketer is himself considered to be one of the greatest batter of all time, but has always remained humble in his approach towards praising other players.
Considering his greatness, many modern-day cricket fans don't realise that Lara has the highest individual score in first-class cricket history with an unbeaten 501 for Warwickshire in 1994. He also is the cricketer with the highest individual score in a Test innings after clobbering an unbeaten knock of 400 not out at Antigua in a match against England in 2004.
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Recently during a conversation with Fox Cricket, the 53-year-old was asked about some of the best bowlers, batters he faced during his career, and he had special praise for none other than Sachin Tendulkar. Pointing out that most Indian batters find it easy to score runs at home but are unable to replicate that in foreign soil, but Sachin didn't fall under that bracket due to his 'technique capable of handling anything'.
"Definitely Sachin Tendulkar and that's not taking anything away from pre-Sachin time in Indian batting because obviously they had Sunil Gavaskar and Mohammad Azharuddin. But when you are talking about an Indian player in India, there are a number of them who are going to score a lot of runs against you. When the Indian batsmen left India, there were few who would survive and acclimatize the conditions in Australia or the Caribbean. That was the first thing I saw with Sachin. It doesn't matter where you took him, it doesn't matter the pace of the bowler or the amount of spin that he is getting. He had the technique capable of handling everything", he said.
"I think the Indian public also recognised that. They had this one man right, that would stand up in every condition. I think it was his first Test match against Pakistan, very early in his career. It was in his first, where he actually got hit, I think from a short delivery, not sure if it was Waqar or Wasim or Shoaib, but he got up, dust his pants, he was bleeding as well and he stood up there and batter. That is something not just India batsmen and a lot of batsmen around the world will be scouring to the pavilion to get treatment, you know spend some time back there. I think he showed a lot of guts, obviously his talent, his ability, his technique is something that is picture-perfect. He just blossomed into one of the greatest batsmen of all time, from the age of 16, I think 25 years of international cricket, that is something very special", he further added.
Having retired, Sachin is the all-time highest run-scorer in both ODI and Test cricket. In his ODI career, he bagged 18,426 runs in 452 innings and 15,921 runs in 329 innings in Test cricket. He also won the ODI World Cup in 2011, and has the record of most Man of the Match awards in ICC with all formats combined.
