"What Murali Didn’t Realise Is That For The First 20 Minutes Of Every Innings, I Really Was Not Reading Him" - Brian Lara

West Indies legend and former captain Brian Lara is one of the best batsmen in the history of cricket. The left-handed batter smashed bowlers all over the world, but only a few bowlers have troubled him. Lara admitted that he struggled to read Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan in the early stages of the innings.

Brian Lara played well against the spin wizards Shane Warne and Muralitharan and also scored a lot of runs of them throughout his career. Lara has revealed the difficulty of taking on two of the game’s greatest spinners. When asked to pick between them, he said the Lankan spinner was tougher compared to the Australian.

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Lara admits that he found the initial minutes difficult every time against Murali, who took 1347 wickets across formats in international cricket. The southpaw scored 688 runs during the 2001 Test series against Sri Lanka.

“What Murali didn’t realise is that for the first 20 minutes of every innings, I really was not reading him. I kept sweeping and getting a single, getting off the strike. And then eventually you start getting accustomed to what he was doing with the ball and then eventually he lost a bit of confidence maybe.

“Murali was harder to face at the beginning of the innings. But as I got better out in the middle, Murali knew he could get the rest of the players out so the field would spread and I’d get a single,” Lara said during a conversation with The Telegraph.

Meanwhile, Lara said that it was challenging against Warne and that he improved with age and experience. “I read Warnie easily, but he became more difficult as he seemed to get better,” Lara said about Warne.

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