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Brian Lara on Thursday saluted the “commitment and consistency” of a man who seems to be heading towards replacing him as the world’s top batsman - Mohammad Yousuf, writes Khalid Hussain.

“It is an excellent performance, nine centuries in a year and so many runs,” said Lara regarded by most as the best batsman of the modern era. “Yousuf is very, very committed and is a role model not just for Pakistani youngsters but for all young cricketers around the world,” added the West Indian captain who knows what it feels like to break batting records having done that on several occasions.

Lara has scored the highest number of runs in Test cricket (11,906) and is also the only man to have scored 400 in an innings in Test history.

But even he finds Yousuf’s current form hard to believe. “He has scored so many runs this year that it is slightly unbelievable. It is really great though I don’t like the 600 or so he has scored against us in this series,” said Lara.

Lara, who is not out on 18, also doesn’t like the way the final Test here at the National Stadium has progressed and admits that a victory for his team is next to impossible after being set a target of 444 runs by Pakistan. “It is very difficult and our focus would be to bat out the whole of tomorrow and make our wickets really expensive,” he said.

Lara is within striking distance of becoming the first batsman to score 12,000 runs in Test cricket but says “it is something that is not on my mind”.

“I just want to go out there and help save this Test. I think that with batsmen like (Ramnaresh) Sarwan, (Shivnarine) Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo still there we can do it.”

West Indies lost their openers ñ- Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga — cheaply on Thursday evening and would be heavily relying on Lara to come out with a Houdinis act today to save them from a crushing defeat. They already lag 0-1 behind in this three-match series after losing by nine wickets in Lahore and drawing the second Test in Multan.

Lara conceded that it would be an uphill task for him and the other batsmen considering the fact that the pitch is still posing problems for the batsmen. “It is still a tough wicket for anyone,” he said.
Source:The News