10 Cricketers who led both U19 and national teams

2. Brian Lara (West Indies) – 1989 Youth World Cup:

If individual brilliance is taken into account, Brian Lara is perhaps the most prolific name in the list. The left-hander ended his career as the highest run-getter for West Indies in the Test and ODI formats. Lara led his side to the semi-finals of the tournament after finishing the group stages with 5 wins in 7 matches before losing to Pakistan in the knockouts.

He, however, wasn’t as productive with the bat in the U19 World Cup as he went to become afterwards. A year later, Lara made his Test debut and showed tremendous ability to build big scores unlike in the Junior World Cup where he ended with 222 runs at 27.75. In the space of two months in 1994, Lara aged just 24 smashed 375 and 501 not out to break world records for the highest Test and first-class scores.

He was soon made the captain of the side and led his team in 125 ODIs and 47 Tests with good success. His captaincy tenure (10 wins, 26 losses and 11 draws in Tests; 59 wins and as many losses in ODIs) was not as record-shattering as his batting but still managed to bind a West Indies side which was slowly losing its dominance in world cricket, especially in the Test format.