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Virender Sehwag is a primal talent whose rough edges make him all the more appealing. By the time he had scored his first centuries in one-day cricket (off 70 balls, against New Zealand) and Test cricket (on debut, against South Africa, from 68 for 4), he was already eliciting comparisons with his idol Sachin Tendulkar. It is half true. Like Tendulkar, he is short and square with curly hair, plays the straight drive, backfoot punch and whip off the hips identically, but leaves Tendulkar in the shade when it comes to audacity. 

Asked to open the innings in Tests on the tour of England in 2002, Sehwag proved an instant hit, cracking an 80 and a 100 in the first two matches. Regularly thereafter, he kept conjuring pivotal innings at the top of the order, none as significant as India's first 300 (which he bought up, characteristically, with a six), at Multan against Pakistan in early 2004.Sehwag bowls effective, loopy offspin, and is a reliable catcher in the slips. He also once almost split the cricket world: when he was banned for a match by the ICC referee Mike Denness on grounds of excessive appealing, the Indian board wasn't prepared to listen, and even played an unofficial Test with South Africa to prove a point. When a compromise was finally reached, Sehwag was back to his merry ways.

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"Tendulkar, Laxman and Dravid and the likes have been in pretty much every situation that you can be as a batsman so for them it's just a matter of replicating that each time they go out.

"We're having to go out there and learn situations as they unfold. It can be tough but we've also got the blueprint to follow when we're out there playing. It's staring us in the face every time they bat."

McCullum has also called for greater application and determination from his team-mates after the selectors opted not to make wholesale changes despite plenty of below-par performances in Hamilton.

"Making no changes gives us opportunities to try and rectify what we didn't do quite so well in the last game.

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Sachin Tendulkar has been the most complete batsman of his time, and arguably the biggest cricket icon as well. His batting is based on the purest principles: perfect balance, economy of movement, precision in stroke-making, and that intangible quality given only to geniuses, anticipation. If he doesn't have a signature stroke - the upright, back-foot punch comes close - it is because he is equally proficient in each of the full range of orthodox shots (and plenty of improvised ones as well) and can pull them out at will. 

Though he has adopted a noticeably conservative approach in the last quarter of his career, there are no apparent weaknesses in Tendulkar's game. He can score all around the wicket, off both front foot and back, and has made runs in all parts of the world in all conditions.