Brian Lara
West Indies·Batter·Age 57
Left-hand bat · Legbreak googly
Career
Brian Lara holds the highest individual score in both Test and first-class cricket — 400 not out against England in 2004, and 501 not out for Warwickshire in 1994 — and is the only batter to have reclaimed the Test record after losing it. His backlift was the highest in the game and his balance at the crease made the extravagance work.
He carried a declining West Indies side for most of his career, which is why so many of his greatest innings came in defeat or in improbable victory: the 153 not out against Australia at Bridgetown in 1999 is regularly ranked among the finest Test innings played.
Highlights
- Holds the highest individual score in Test cricket, 400 not out
- Holds the highest first-class score, 501 not out for Warwickshire
- Only batter to regain the Test record score after losing it
- Scored 153 not out to beat Australia at Bridgetown in 1999
Overview
What the figures show
Brian Lara is listed as a batter from West Indies. The competitions covered on this site hold no completed matches under this name.
International
Career record
| Format | M | Inns | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Testfrom 2001 | 17 | 31 | 2,036 | 400* | 67.87 | 64.8 | 7 | 5 |
| ODIfrom 2002 | 71 | 67 | 1,878 | 116 | 32.95 | 78.1 | 1 | 10 |
Figures marked with a year cover only part of this career — the ball-by-ball archive behind these numbers begins in 2001 for Tests and 2002 for One Day Internationals.
Questions
About Brian Lara
What is Brian Lara's playing style?
Brian Lara is a left-hand bat who bowls legbreak googly, listed as a batter.
What is Brian Lara's highest score?
400 not out against England in Antigua in 2004, the highest individual innings in Test cricket. In first-class cricket he made 501 not out for Warwickshire in 1994.
Why is Brian Lara considered one of the greatest?
Beyond the record scores, he produced many of his best innings for a weakening West Indies side against the strongest attacks of his era, often with little support.
What was distinctive about Brian Lara's technique?
An extremely high backlift and a pronounced trigger movement, combined with exceptional balance, which let him play very late and score all around the wicket.
Also on CricketTaken
Players alongside Brian Lara
Team-mates from this player's IPL seasons first, then others from the same country.
How this page was worked out
Where these figures come from
Sources for this profile
- International figures computed from Cricsheet ball-by-ball data, used under the Open Data Commons Attribution License 1.0.
- Date of birth, playing style and photograph come from a third-party player feed, matched by name.
How the numbers are derived
- A wide is not a ball faced; a no ball is.
- Byes and leg byes are not charged to the bowler; wides and no balls are.
- Six kinds of dismissal are credited to a bowler. A run out is not one of them.
- An average is runs over dismissals, and is left blank rather than shown as infinite.
- Every rule in full →
What this page does not cover
- Only the competitions named above. A record elsewhere in this player’s career is not counted here and is not implied by these totals.
- Ball-by-ball coverage of Test cricket begins in 2001 and of ODIs in 2002.
- A figure here that looks wrong is worth reporting — how to report it.