Brian Lara explains how he faced legendary spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne

West Indies great and former skipper Brian Lara has laid bare the difficulty in facing two of the greatest spinners the sport has seen – Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Speaking of Muralitharan, who took 1347 wickets across Test, ODI and T20Is, Lara said he found the Sri Lankan off spinner challenging at start before figuring his way out.

During the 2001 Test series in which Lara scored 688 runs while Murali picked 24 wickets, the West Indies left-handed batter explained he found the initial minutes difficult every time.

“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 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,” he told The Telegraph.

Meanwhile, with Warne, Lara stated, it was challenging as he got better with age and experience.

“I read Warnie easily but he became more difficult as he seemed to get better.”

He further explained that with the Aussie leg spinner who passed away last year, it was important to read the hand at the release rather than wait for the ball to hit the deck.

“A lot of people try to read off the pitch. I think that’s a bit too late. So, I’m trying to understand what’s coming out of the bowler’s hand. I read Warnie quite easily. But what made him great was the fact that he never gave up and he was always going to come out and produce something to confuse you,” said the new Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach.

Lara, 53, elaborated he honed his skills in playing spin thanks to tennis ball cricket. “We played with tennis balls, and you can actually chuck the tennis ball,” Lara said. “In softball cricket, you can chuck it into the pitch, turn it a mile. And I felt that was a huge part of understanding how to play spin from an early age. If you were to ask me ‘spin or pace?’ I’ll tell you spin every single day. It just came as something natural.”

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