Here, we look at Yadav’s shots, and those who charted the path of innovative shots before him as India gear up for their semi-final against a formidable England at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday.

Suryakumar Yadav

The India No 4 believes in quickly establishing his presence in the middle, and not letting the bowler build any pressure after the fall of a wicket. The 360-degree batter brings his strong wrists into play to hit anywhere between midwicket to the finest of fine-leg. Shots through the off-side arc, far more textbook, are also fluent if the bowler tries to pitch it outside off-stump.

Kapil Dev

He burst on the international scene in the late 1970s, injecting great flair to batting. Among the finest all-rounders of his generation, power and athleticism allowed effortless hitting. The most impressive one was nicknamed the ‘Nataraja shot’, holding the posture of dancing Shiva as he pulled with the front foot raised. His most memorable knock—175* versus Zimbabwe that inspired India to the 1983 World Cup win—was strewn with a few.

Virender Sehwag

India’s modern master of unorthodoxy, or daring shot-maker, was about minimum effort and maximum effect. Not for him the current twisting out of shape in T20 to hit boundaries. It made him a unique threat to bowlers, in red-ball and white-ball cricket. Viru’s most audacious shot was the upper cut, the fast bowler’s short, rising delivery outside off-stump despatched over third man. The batter dubbed it the ‘lottery shot’, saying one simply had to leave the bat there to send it for maximum. Talk of effortless description!

Sachin Tendulkar

So technically accomplished, the batter had two straight drives—straight and straighter—that made him a major challenge to bowl to in the field-restriction overs first up. His repertoire of shots did the job for him, off the front foot or back foot, with hitting through the line a particularly effective approach. Still, Tendulkar, following back issues and teams looking to plug his scoring areas, developed his own version of the paddle sweep, fine and fine.

AB de Villiers

The original Mr 360 was sensational every time he got going. His power, timing and range of shots all round made him THE batter for white-ball cricket. The South African master’s slog sweep, down on one knee over midwicket, the forehand shot, hit tennis style over the bowler’s head, the late cut where the ball is sent over the slip area by just letting it skim the outside edge and a variety of the lap shot made it almost impossible to contain him.

Kevin Pietersen

The South Africa-born batter was a mini-batting revolutionary, preceding England’s current band of brilliant hitters. An aggressive batter, to begin with, he left bowlers in dismay with his trademark ‘switch hit’. He changed his stance from right to left at the last moment, sending the ball to the fence as it simply made a joke of the field positions. Glenn Maxwell and David Warner are the current masters of the shot by changing hand position on the bat as they switch stance.

Glenn Maxwell

It is a pity hosts Australia were knockout out early from the T20 World Cup. It has deprived home fans from watching their own 360-degree batter. Be it using the pace of the bowler, or punching gaps in the field to pick boundaries at will in the middle overs, Maxwell has few equals. Having played left-handed as well as a boy, he is a natural switch-hitter too, besides playing the lap shot and pouncing at anything pitched short too.