Lara averaged 46 in 52 innings as an opener. Nevertheless, I don't think he'd have played there if there were decent specialist options. I always regarded Lara as a top/middle order batsman myself, who plays at 5 in my personal team.

He opened with Desi Haynes at the start of his career, and was clearly their best batsman in the 92 world cup when they could have picked Phil Simmons. In fact, he opened when they arguably had the best opening batting options of his career. Lara needs the fielding restrictions of the first fifteen overs to really perform at his best in limited overs, that is why his record at opening and 3 is far superior to anything he provided lower down the order. He is no match for Viv at 3, players like Javed were better down the order so Lara doesn't feature for me unless he has the chance of fighting for the opening slot (even then I wouldn't have picked him).

Lara's the greatest batsman I've ever seen. There was no ball that he couldn't play one of several shots to, he was a brilliant timer and placer of the ball and he could go over the top with ease. So IMO he'd be brilliant wherever he batted. Still, I see what you're saying- ideally he'd be as high up as possible to get the very best out of him. But we can't eat our cake and have it too, I guess, so I'm content to have Lara at 5, Richards at 4 and Tendulkar at 3 in my personal team.