Double B'Days

Brian Lara 

                  On this day, in 1969, Brian Lara was born at Trinidad and Tobago. When we hear about Lara, the first thing comes into our mind is his 400* in Test Cricket against England in 2004, as that is still the highest individual score in Test Cricket and this world record created sensation among the media and the cricket fans. Here I am not going to speak about his best knocks, but something different. 

Brian Lara made his International cricket debut in 1990, at the age of 21. During the early phase of 1990s, West Indies team were so dominant in its field, as every opposition would be fearing to face them, due to their ruthless batting and brutal bowling lineup. But, that period also saw the downfall of West Indies as many legendary cricketers were retiring from cricket, and slowly started to get bashed all around the world. But, Brian Lara, stood up like a rock and as an one man army, he carried his team and battled out all the greatest bowlers and emerging bowlers during 1990s and also till mid 2000s. 

Even, from his cricketing career, left handed batsmen got much recognition. He is so consistent in all formats of the game, which is so hard to maintain from a period of bowlers. A left handed batsman, who takes guard at leg stump, has a high back lift. His eyes are so sharp and his head is still like a statue. He stands casually with his bat facing leg side before bowling the delivery, and during the ball is bowled, he bend his back body bit front but his knees are straight, moves his foot earlier and watches the ball closely and adjusts it according to the field placement. 

So thinking and sharp, also he is strong at off side and creating an elegant style of batting. The opposition team sets fielders by placing two slips, a silly point, a backward point and also fielders at point and cover position but still he manages to hit a four through the off side direction. That shows his classy style of drives and cut shots at off side. He is so calm and his head but so consistent on scoring. His batting was compared with of his nephew Darren Bravo's as both share similar style of cricket.

He retired from all forms of cricket in the year 2007, after the end of World Cup. He has average of maintaining 52 at Tests while 48 at ODIs, which is so hard to maintain in longer period of cricketing career. A top order batsman whose name is still sounding all over the world for the brand of West Indian cricket he created. 

Yasir Shah

                    On this day, in 1986, Yasir Shah was born in Swabi, Pakistan. In the standards set by Pakistani cricket, pacers are prominent all over the world and they keep developing young pacers for a longer term. But when it comes to spin bowling, it lags a bit because of less prominence of spin bowling in international cricket and also the preference given much to pace attack. Some batsmen have turned into all rounders and started to bowl spin deliveries. Only few like Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez succeeded, while many came in and faded away quickly. Yasir Shah is one among the prominent lists. He started his career at 2011, who bowls leg spin and also can bat at lower order. He is one among the few, who is so much devoted towards test cricket, as his prominence took a rise in this format. 

In 39 test matches, he picked up 213 wickets till now and still a big career left for him. Bit eyebrow raising, his leg spin is difficult to judge. He has both leg spin delivery and googly delivery, but the problem for opposition is his bowling action is so quick and unpredictable whether he is going to bowl leg spin, google or a straighter delivery. Also, the speed at which he bowls is also difficult for a batsman to judge. His arm action speed but his wrist, and his brain does the job. He has a best bowling figures of 8/41 in a single innings, narrow miss to 10 wickets record in a single innings. 

He was named at 2017 PCB's test player of the year. He had doping violation which made him to serve ban for a shorter time during 2015 - 2016, but still the engine isn't off.