‘Sachin’s famous reply to Brett Lee’ is one of the videos uploaded on Robelinda’s YouTube channel, which has around 18 million views. Let that sink in for a moment.

Brett Lee is bowling over 150 clicks, which is almost 93 mph. The reaction time for the batsman is less than a half a second. The second ball of the over is a slightly wide half-volley clocked at 154.8 kph. Sachin gets forward, opens the face and murders it through cover point. No one is dared to move an inch.

The first thing to notice with Tendulkar is how he sets up at the crease. Stands relatively side-on to the bowler, knees slightly bent. There is no trigger from his feet. The first question coming in my mind is how he gets his rhythm. It’s that last bat tap just about Lee hits his delivery stride.

He taps his bat just behind his right foot and starts picking his bat up as Lee’s right arm rolls over to release the ball. This is something which is called getting in ‘sync with the bowler action’.

Next ball is tossed up once again. Tendulkar steps forward to give himself base and belts the ball extremely hard straight back past Brett Lee.

One ball later, Lee goes fuller once again, probably an attempt to york the batsman. Tendulkar just times the ball back past him unlike one ball before.

Now in the second boundary where he struck the ball extremely hard down the ground, when he steps into the ball, keep an eye as to when he puts his front foot down, the base is stable and his head stays somewhat mid-center as shown in the image below. There is also a shoulder-hip separation (see red and orange lines below) which creates an elastic band effect, giving him the leverage to hit the ball hard.

What that does is that it allows the hips to fire. The angle of the back foot allows the hips to face forward towards the bowler. If the back foot had been pointing towards point fielder, surely that would’ve restricted the rotation of his hips. The angle of the back knee also changes quite a bit which drives his hips against a stable front side and the bat comes through the contact zone.

Keep an eye on the back leg as well, how it propels forward and back like a piston. The back knee in the third image (from left) almost pinches forward and then goes back to create power. Look at the hips facing forwards in the last frame.

The next shot, which was a push really also went away to the fence. Obviously it wasn’t struck that hard because it depends on the batsman’s intent as well. I’ve drawn a comparison between the two back lifts. See on the right he doesn’t back lift as much as compared to the left where his shoulders rotate negatively quite a lot.

The image where he drives the ball rather gently as compared to the other one, his hips don’t face forwards as much as compared to the other (see below).

What Tendulkar has shown is adaptability with his swing, something which every batter can learn through a lot of practice.