Cricket legend Brian Lara feels a new generation of batsmen could challenge his record for the highest individual score in Test cricket — a mammoth 400 runs scored in 2004. While a few others have reached the selectors’ rarest milestone of triple hundred in international matches, Lara’s record remained untouched for two decades.
Sri Lanka’s Mathew Hayden and Virender Sehwag, besides West Indies’ Chris Gayle, have been on quite elusive run-fest in world cricket, with many hoping for the poor bowlers that they would end Lara’s reign at the top.
The West Indian great also revealed a few during his time who are very much aggressive batsmen and had threatened his record, including Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle, and Sanath Jayasuriya. Looking forward to the future, Brian Lara has named four batsmen with the required temperament and ability to chase his record down: Zak Crawley and Harry Brook, both from England, and the promising young talents from India, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill.
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“How many hard-nosed players do you see today?” Brian Lara told the Daily Mail. “In England, there’s Zak Crawley and Harry Brook. In India, maybe Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill. Given the right conditions, they could break the record.”
Under the stewardship of England’s new aggressive approach, Zak Crawley has already posted a career-best of 267 in Tests, while fellow rising star Brook averaged 62 with a strike rate over 90—his highest knock being 186.
On the other side, Yashasvi Jaiswal has a penchant of playing marathon innings with two double-hundreds against England early this year. The Indian southpaw averages more than 68 runs in Tests, while Shubman Gill has an average slightly lower but has made a mark with a match-winning 91 against Australia in the historic Test.
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On the whole, he has scored north of 1400 runs with four centuries in his Test career. This seems to boost the need for the million-dollar question: which of these two young batsmen will first break the 300-run barrier and perhaps challenge Lara’s previously near-impossible record? Cricket fans all over the world will be closely following their careers.
