Some really uncanny cricketing shots

6. Sachin Tendulkar: The ‘Master Blaster’ had the ‘Paddle Sweep’, amongst his repertoire of great cricketing shots. The ‘Paddle Sweep’ is a shot where the bat is used like a boat’s paddle to glide the ball away to the boundary, and was used by Tendulkar mainly against spin bowlers. Probably inspired by English great, Colin Cowdrey who was one of the earliest exponents of the shot, Tendulkar used it to devastating effect against Shane Warne in the famous 1998 series against Australia, to counter Warne’s negative line bowling.

Tendulkar’s trademark ‘Paddle Sweep’!

Though innovative shots have become a norm in cricket these days mainly due to the advent of T20 cricket as batsmen need to come up with shots that are out of the ordinary to keep up with the fast pace of T20 cricket, cricket needs more of players like Dilshan and Pietersen, who can liven up the ‘Gentleman’s game’ a bit more than just the regular coaching manual.