The Rival XI - A team which can beat the Wisden XI

Brian Lara

Tests: 151

Runs – 11,953

Average – 52.88

100s – 34

If Tendulkar is the number four of the Wisden side, this team has to have Brian Lara at four. A magician with the willow, Lara was one of the most stylish batsman to have ever graced the cricket field. A contemporary of Tendulkar, this left-hander was at times rated even higher than the Indian master by opposition bowlers.

His panache for scoring big scores was unparalleled, and the way he got to them was a treat for the spectators. A maverick with the bat, this Trinidadian is the only batsman in cricket history to have scored a hundred, a double hundred, a triple, a quadruple and a quintuple hundred in first class games.

If his highest of 400 not out in Tests remains unbreached, his score of 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham is another world record that is yet to be broken.