Gary Kirsten picks the best bowler and batsman he played against

Former South African cricketer Gary Kirsten is more famous for his coaching stint with the Indian team. The 50-year-old in his playing days represented the Proteas team in 101 Test matches and 185 ODIs. In his decade-long career, the left-hand batter got through a lot of highs and lows, was a part of the South African team that played against all the top opponents and scored over 14,000 runs in international cricket.

He played his cricket in an era when the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara ruled the roost. Kirsten wasn’t the most talented or skilled batsman as far as technique is concerned but made up for it with his hard work and temperament. He faced some of the best bowlers in his career – all of Shane Warne, Wasim Akram, Glenn McGrath were at their peak in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Best bowler and favourite batsman

Having faced and tackled them when Kirsten was asked to name the best bowler batted against, the Proteas cricketer had no doubts it was McGrath and his favourite batter was Windies legend, Brian Lara.

“Glenn McGrath was the best bowler I ever faced and my favourite batsman was Brian Lara,” he was quoted as saying by IANS.

Players he enjoyed working with

Kirsten was a gentleman in his playing days and though a very competitive player on the field enjoyed playing against most opponents. He turned to coaching in his second inning as a professional and was famously the coach of the Indian team that won the World Cup in 2011. When asked about the players he enjoyed playing and working along he named Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh among others.

“There were a lot of cricketers against whom I enjoyed playing and later working with like Sachin (Tendulkar), Rahul (Dravid), V.V.S. Laxman, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh. All these are the legends of the game,” Kirsten concluded.

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