Shane Warne or Muttiah Muralitharan? Brian Lara picks the best spinner

Former West Indies captain Brian Lara named the best spinner he faced.

Former West Indies captain Brian Lara has named the best spinner he faced between late Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan. Lara faced the prime of both the legendary spinners, who are also the leading wicket-takers in international cricket.

Former Sri Lanka spinner Muralitharan is the highest wicket-taker in international cricket. From 1992 to 2011, the right-arm off-spinner hunted 1347 wickets. He also holds the record for most wickets in test cricket (800) and ODI cricket (534).

Late Shane Warne follows Muralitharan as the second highest wicket-taker in international cricket, with 1001 wickets. He is also the second highest wicket-taker in test cricket with 708 scalps to his name. Sadly, Warne died in 2022 after suffering heart attack during a vacation in Thailand.

I think Shane Warne was mentally stronger: Brian Lara

While speaking on The Overlap Cricket show on YouTube, Lara heaped praise on Muralitharan. He said that he used to get confused while facing the Sri Lankan spinner.

“He is the best, and you know, I walk out to bat against Murali, and I’m confused. I got that 688 runs in three matches and the first half an hour of Murali, I would be confused. I’d play a sweep shot down to deep backward square for a single. You know, I’d play a sweep shot again,” he said.

“And then all of a sudden, you know, because it’s the guys, the other guys didn’t read him. He’s like, oh, take out the bit. No, no, no. But for Lara, nothing, nothing. Let’s move everybody up. And all of a sudden, the pressure came off. But Murali gave me more pressure than Shane,” he added.

Speaking about Warne, Lara said that he rates him higher than Muralitharan because he was mentally stronger.

“But when I’d walk out to bat against Shane. The ball would be coming off the middle, every ball, and about 2-3 PM, he just produces this magical delivery or spell. That’s why I rate him higher, because I think he was mentally stronger,” Lara said.

“And obviously with his bowling attack and the pitches that he bowled on, which favoured, you know, the McGraths and McDermotts, for him to pick up that amount of wickets, very, very special,” he added.

Meanwhile, Lara recently slammed Cricket West Indies (CWI) over early retirement of Nicholas Pooran from international cricket. Last month, Pooran announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 29. Lara slammed the CWI for not doing anything to keep its players loyal to the national team.

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