The gap between Klusener and Kapil as a batsman was far greater than the difference between them as bowlers. Much of Kapil's batting legend comes from a single innings that nobody saw against Zimbabwe.
I loved Lara's batting but Lara+Dhoni is objectively worse than Gilchrist+Bevan, especially considering that Lara opened for such a short period of his career. I want 50(54) from Gilchrist more than 60(72) from Lara when the next batsman in is Vivian ****ing Richards.
Its other way around, Gap between Kapil and Klusner bowling is bigger than the difference between their batting.
Klusner career lasted just 9 years.
Check Kapil's 10 years in 80s.. He was the best batsman of India according to icc rankings.( 27 avg 102 SR equivalent of 30+ avg at 110+ sr for Klusner's time )
And was a regular in World's top 5 or top 10 bowlers.
Kapil was 90% Pollock as a bowler + 90% Klusner as a batsman
Lara opened in 52 matches, 46 of them were before 1996. Until then Lara's Strike Rate was 72 which is 4th highest in the alltime list ( minimum 1000 runs )
For Comparison, alltime 2nd best Jayasurya was striking at 78 in that time period.
Only one opener had strike rate above 80, Sachin Tendulkar with an insane 94 sr.
Also, until 2000 only three number 3 batsmen had SR above 80, they are
Zaheer Abbas 85.7, Viv Richards 86.8 and Brian Lara 87.2
(For comparison, Ricky Ponting was 69.5)
So, you dont need to worry about Sachin - Lara duo's scoring rate.
Its 1990s Sachin without pressure of team stability + 1990s Lara with modern Opener approach
