Lara The Perceptive Commentator

The West Indies legend picks Indian stars for the future, the Aussie and Kiwis commemorate Anzac Day, and a cleanliness drive.

The Indian Premier League is made for television. This time around, the coverage of the world’s most glamorous cricket league on Star Sports has been probably the best ever, thanks largely to the presence of some perceptive commentators, many of them not regular faces and voices.

Brian Lara was definitely one of the biggest attractions, not just because of his stature as one of the legends of the game. The former West Indies captain, who still holds some significant batting records, displayed great insight and made some astonishing predictions that came true, such as Virat Kohli’s hundred against Kolkata Knight Riders and the dismissal of Andre Russell in one of the games.

Lara, however, had to leave the commentary team before the IPL reached its business end. But before his departure, he picked five Indian players for the future – Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer and Rahul Chahar.

He feels Shaw could break some of the batting records that he had set. “He is a very attacking player, someone, I believe — with how cricket is being played now — he can target a 400,” Lara said. “But he has to work a little on his technique.”

Lara expects Pant and Samson to take over from M. S. Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik. “Those two guys are pretty much coming to the end of their career,” he said. “I believe Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson can control all the formats of cricket for India. I am very, very impressed with them.”