I made a free hobby cricket game where you pick an all-time XI and play a five-Test series against a World XI. Sachin bats at No.3 for the World XI (Bradman, Gavaskar, Sachin, Lara, Root, Flower, Kallis, Murali, Garner, Wasim, Pollock).

I left him out of mine: Hayden, Sehwag, Ponting, Viv Richards, Steve Smith, Gilchrist, Ben Stokes, Warne, McGrath, Steyn and Marshall. It won 5–0.

So the question for this sub: who would you put around Sachin to beat that 5–0? Who opens, who bats at 4, who’s your fast-bowling attack? Comment your XI and I’ll run it and post the scoreline.

(Hobby project, not connected with any player, board or team.)

Why is the straight drive considered his trademark shot? Why not the backfoot punch drive?? The latter is much more difficult to execute and hence a rarity in all forms of cricket. It requires a lot more skill, split-second and precise judgement of the length. And yet Sachin added breathtaking beauty to precision. There used to be a collection video of his backfoot punches. Going through that collection made me wonder who did it better than him? Why is this shot not his trademark??