Wednesday, December 5, 2001 In the series which has just finished in Sri Lanka, Brian Lara didn't just make stacks of runs and add to his collection of world records. He rebranded himself.

Like Marks & Spencer, Lara was a big name that had fallen into disrepute. Memories of the 375 and the 501, and even the phenomenal feats against Australia two years ago, were being elbowed out by difficulties with everything from Glenn McGrath to punctuality. In his early thirties, when he should have been in his prime, he was increasingly regarded as a spoilt brat, a breed that cricket fans put up with less readily than, say, followers of tennis or football. In October, readers of Wisden Cricket Monthly left him out of their World XI for the first time in the six-year history of the poll.

The Lara-bashers were harsh on him but the figures were on their side. In a sequence of seven innings in England and Australia in 2000, he made 4, 2, 0, 47, 0, 4 and 0. His average slipped to a near-mortal 47 (what England wouldn't give to have someone as poor as that in their side), and a glance at the PwC ratings confirmed that his place in the trinity of today's great batsmen, alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Waugh, had been stolen by Andy Flower. It was as if the Beatles had been outsold by Queen.

Summoning up what he could manage in the way of humility, Lara sought advice. Being Lara, he turned to Sir Garry Sobers, the man who had embraced him in the middle at St John's on that heady day in 1994 when the Test record passed from one to the other. Sobers pointed out a fault that had crept into Lara's fabulously exaggerated backlift: his hands were coming down from the direction of gully, making the simple things difficult. Commentators had been saying the same for a while, but it comes better from a fellow immortal.

Even geniuses need to feel secure at the crease, and Lara found that once his defence was more straightforward, he felt less pressure to dominate the bowling. He also worked out that he didn't need to set out to score fast, as he would score fast anyway. It was one of those crucial realisations which are near-neighbours of the bleeding obvious.

With these adjustments came a resolve to get his average back over 50 in the three-Test series in Sri Lanka. He started with a bang, conjuring 178 while others struggled to adapt to the heat of Galle and the wiles of Murali. Then came a spasm of the old arrogance, when he boasted that he would get 150 in the second innings. Predictably, the prediction went awry – he made 40.

But it came good in the end, as he added 221 and 130 in Colombo to 78 and 45 at Kandy to complete the greatest short series ever by a batsman in testing conditions. Graham Gooch made more runs in three Tests against India in 1990, but that was at home and the attack, led by an ageing Kapil Dev, had no Murali, nor even a Chaminda Vaas.

Lara's average is now 50.49. He has ousted Steve Waugh from the PwC top three, and the No. 1 spot will surely be his again when the ratings are updated at the end of the game at Mohali. His average Test century, disregarding not-outs, is now 171, only 15 behind Bradman. He has even said he would trade all those runs in Sri Lanka for a better result. He's back – and this time it's professional.

More From the Editor
Wanted: a tour de force
Talking the talk - and twisting the facts

Tim de Lisle is editor of Wisden.com and former editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly magazine.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd