Top 5 classical shots executed to perfection by modern-day players

#2 Cover drive - Babar Azam and Virat Kohli

Babar Azam's cover drives are a thing of beauty

It is almost impossible to decide who plays the better cover drive in the game at the moment - Babar Azam or Virat Kohli. Both these players own all the conventional shots in cricket but there is no denying that their cover drives are what stand out.

When timed and placed to perfection, the shot seems to be the epitome of elegant batsmanship.

The king of drives

Both Azam and Kohli stay still at the crease with little feet movement as the bowler runs in. When they see the ball in the zone, they meet the ball under the eyes and let the bat follow through.

The biggest difference between Kohli's and Azam's cover drive is that Kohli checks the follow-through of his bat as the ball races away whereas Azam makes the full extension of the pose and finishes with a high elbow. Either way, the shot is one of those sights in cricket that you can never have enough of.

#1 Pull - Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma

For a nation that often saw their batsmen being undone by the short ball, seeing one of their players pulling Australian pacers for sixes in their own backyard was a stunning sight. Rohit Sharma is from the modern breed of Indian batters who do not get intimidated by pace and bounce; rather, he takes up the challenge and hits monstrous sixes, both to the left and right of the square-leg umpire.

Rohit's pull shot is as destructive as it gets. He scores a good chunk of his runs against pacers through the pull shot, and is widely considered the best puller in the game at the moment.

There are delightful shots and there are destructive shots, but the pull shot of the 'Hitman' easily falls into both categories.