Brian Lara chooses Sachin Tendulkar over run-machine Virat Kohli

For quite some time now, there has been a debate going around, surrounding who among Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar is the best batsman. While the 30-year-old Delhi-born Virat has been racking up records at will and with sheer authority, Sachin was an absolute stalwart in his generation. Sachin hung his boots from international cricket way back in 2013 and a number of his records are still unscathed.

Virat, on the other hand, is an unstoppable force in all forms of cricket. The experienced campaigner is nearing Sachin’s tally of 49 ODI centuries, though he is quite a fair distance away from 100 tons, donning the national colours. A number of personalities from experts to commoners have shared their opinions. Even as many have picked Sachin, a number of them have also gone for Virat.

The impression Sachin left on the game is just unbelievable

In the meantime, retired Windies batsman Brian Lara has joined the bandwagon and he didn’t have any hesitation in picking Sachin. “He (Virat Kohli) is a (run) machine. But sorry to say Sachin Tendulkar is my (choice),” Lara, who has the highest individual Test score of 400, was quoted as saying in after being conferred the Doctorate in Science (Honours Causa) by the D Y Patil University in Nerul.

Lara, who has over 22,00 runs at the highest level in an illustrious career, mentioned that presently, there’s a massive gap between Virat and the rest of the world. And irrespective of the format, Lara reckons that Virat should feature in any team, bearing in mind his stupendous abilities. Kohli is presently plying his trade in the 2019 World Cup where he has already captained his team to the semis.

“But getting back to your question, no doubt there is a huge gap between Virat Kohli and the rest of the world in all forms of the game. Rohit Sharma might have got four centuries in this World Cup, (Jonny) Bairstow or whatever, if you want somebody to bat in T20, T10, 100 balls (cricket) or Test cricket, it is going to be Virat Kohli today,” the legendary cricketer mentioned.

“The (impression) Sachin left on the game is just unbelievable, because he sort of bridged that period, where you felt that when Indian batsman leaves Indian soil, Indian pitches, they are not that good. But Sachin Tendulkar was good on every surface and all of the Indian batsman are good on every single surface today, I think simply because they took a page out of his (Sachin’s) book,” Lara added.