Did Lara miss a trick not opening in ODIs ?

[Bumper]

Lara's ODI opening career in numbers: [code:f4fc638425] Mat I NO Runs HS1 HS2 HS3 Ave 100 50 0 Career ----> 299 289 32 10405 169 156 153 40.48 19 63 16 Opener ---> 52 52 5 2166 153 128 117 46.08 5 15 3 [/code:1:f4fc638425] Averages 46 opening, with 5 100s & 15 50s in 52 games. ie, In 20 out of the 52 games, he has played an influential role. Thats close 25% of his 100s, 50s in 1/6th of his career. If he had continued at the same rate, he'd have scored 30 100s and 90 50s in 300 games. Amazing he did not choose to open!

[Ram]

Re: Did Lara miss a trick not opening in ODIs ? one simple reason to this wud b -- playing for the team's needs. in the last few years , the west-indian middle order has been brittle and inexperienced. So Lara was forced to go down to boost the middle order. A more pertinent stat wud -- how many did WI in those 52 matches. If it is higher than the career % , mayb he shud hav opened more. If it is the same or lower -- then it just confirms the above suspicion...

[Anakin]

Re: Did Lara miss a trick not opening in ODIs ? Imo, he used to bat too low down the order, at least 3/4 would've been better for the team as well.

[King]

Re: Did Lara miss a trick not opening in ODIs ? Yup I agree, Lara batted way down the order since about a year or two in ODIs. I remember in 1992 he was in top form opening for WI. Always used to score a lot of runs first up. At the same time you could say he was a smart operator and understood his limitations. When the reflexes are not that great why go up the order and get rolled over? Also in ODIs you have the best bowlers opening the bowling for all the teams. I'm not saying he chickened away but just saying that he was smart to understand his limitations.

[Chaos]

Re: Did Lara miss a trick not opening in ODIs ? lara is not sachin to succed as opener. why lara was good? because he was grown up near legends (fast bowlers). We had no bowling legends, still tendu dominated:D

[kabira]

Re: Did Lara miss a trick not opening in ODIs ? Lara played most of the games as one down..he preferred one down position..