i don't at all think it's fair to remove his debut series. if he was good enough to play, he was good enough to have his runs counted in any analysis.
that said, based on what i have watched, i have found lara to be far less impressive against great pace than tendulkar. my memory might be failing me but donald had him for breakfast in 99.....i don't think he's scored a 100 against donald or younis or even akhtar. tendulkar has played some superb knocks against pace, in particular against donald. his performances against lee at his best (in 08), and ambrose are also not too shabby.
Well again it is subjective. Lara was removed by Donald 6 times in 20 innings, while Tendulkar was removed by Donald 5 times in 20 innings. Not much difference there. If you remember Donald having Lara for breakfast in the 99 series, then you would also remember Lara also going after Donald a lot in the same series (including hitting him four or five boundaries and six in 2 overs). In one of the innings I vaguely remember Donald was actually taken off the attack after Lara had scored 30 runs from just 2 of his overs. He had his revenge though by coming back and getting Lara's wicket. This was Test match cricket. If actual Player vs Player stats are taken I would be surprised if Lara has scored lesser runs just off Donald's bowling in Test cricket than Tendulkar.
Lara might have lacked a big 100 against Donald, but at the end of the day he scored more runs, at a higher average, and at a better strike-rate than Tendulkar in the matches that Donald played in. He was also slightly more consistent (7 50+ scores in 20 innings compared to Tendulkar's 5 50+ scores in 20 innings against Donald). That is enough (in addition to him smashing Donald all over in Test match cricket much more than Tendulkar did) for me to conclude Lara was slightly better against Donald.
Having said that, neither of them were really stellar to my eyes against Donald. And their records do show that. It really is subjective. Donald himself rates Tendulkar as better.
Lara's was a high-risk attack approach against Donald, while Tendulkar's was a steady approach, so I would not be surprised if Lara looked like a jumping-jack. Yes, looks-wise, Tendulkar looked more solid but at the same time (to my eyes) Lara punished Donald far more than what Tendulkar did.
Regarding Waqar, Lara had a decent series with him in 92-93 (216 runs @ 42.3) when Waqar was at his peak, and they actually had great duels in that series. I do remember him and Phil Simmons going after Waqar on a bowler friendly pitch in Barbados in that series. Waqar went for a lot in that Test match.
In any case Waqar himself rated Lara better than Tendulkar (simply because he never bowled to Sachin in Test cricket at his peak).
YouTube - WAQAR YOUNIS ON SIR VIV, BRIAN LARA AND SACHIN TENDULKAR
Both had very different approaches when playing pace bowling, especially great pace bowlers. Tendulkar's approach was Gavaskarish (steady, see off the good deliveries and attack the bad ones), while Lara was more Richardsish (more attack than defence).
The difference was Tendulkar was much better stroke-player than Gavaskar, so could score runs easily without taking risks, while Lara was not as good at attacking at Richards, and consequently appeared very vulnerable.
To me, both were pretty average against pace. When I say pace, I mean short-pitched pace bowling at the body. Between the two, Lara was clearly better though. Again, since I define better means scoring more runs against that kind of bowling.
Lara took more risks but that was his attitude rather than a technical limitation. All the below videos are decent examples. The deliveries that Lara hooked-pulled-cut ranged from 140 Kmph to 150+ Kmph. Because of his propensity to attack, he might have gotten into a tangle, especially on a pitch with variable bounce, like he did the in the first video below, but he certainly didn't look "hurried" while playing the pull shots at deliveries clocking 150+ Kph.
YouTube - Brian Lara vs Brett Lee 2nd test 2003 Trinidad
YouTube - RECORD RUN CHASE BY WESTINDIES VS AUSTRALIA 4TH TEST AT ANTIGUA MAY 2003
(from 7:00 to 13:32 , the square-cut 6 off Lee to begin the innings was pretty good).
My opinions aren't made in stone. I don't have anything against either Lara or Tendulkar. So if you can find Tendulkar videos where he managed to pull-hook-cut short-pitched bowling of that serious pace in Test cricket more frequently than Lara, please do let me know, I will change my mind. From my memory, I can't recall him doing so. Did see his 169 and 111 videos again could not find any hook-pull-cut shots off Donald's short pitched deliveries. Tendulkar generally played it safe and rarely took on short pitched bowling at that high pace in Test match cricket.
Statistically or visually I generally found Lara to be slightly better (again in the sense of scoring more runs and being more aggressive) than Tendulkar more often than not against quality pace in Test match cricket. This doesn't mean Tendulkar was useless. It is just that his play was much more defensive, while Lara's was more attacking. To some, that might be better, since it is safer. To me, it is about how many runs you score at the end of the day.
Yes, Lara might have looked more vulnerable than Tendulkar because of his attacking approach but if at the end of the day he, on average, scored many more runs than Tendulkar against quality pace, the appearance of vulnerability really becomes moot to me. But from what I have seen of both, they were quite behind Vivian Richards and Barry Richards in this aspect though. Again just my opinion. At the end, while Tendulkar lacked a stand-out, stellar series against any of the great pace bowlers of their era, Lara salvaged it a bit with his performances against McGrath.
