It will be a fascinating contest as individual duels develop. Everyone of the above players has great strengths, but like all other mortals in the game, they still have weaknesses. Their biggest strengths are that they make less mistakes and their shot selection is better than other batsmen. They allhave great confidence in their ability and on their day, they are potential match winners.

If I was asked to bowl to each player, how would I do it?

SACHIN TENDULKAR: He is a complete batsman with wonderful hand-eye co-ordination. His foot movement and powerful strokeplay make him a formidable opponent. He will look to dominate the bowler by attacking him and making sure that he wins the mental game within the contest very quickly. He will do this by hitting boundaries with drives, lofted shots, cuts and pulls and he will frustrate the bowler by improvising and working the ball away for singles. On his day he will be difficult to stop, but it is hard to believe that he will be consistently successful especially with all his attacking options and his desire to dominate the bowler. To do that, he has to take risks. If a bowler bowls badly, he will be punished, but by denying the batsman room to play the big shots and by keeping the ball tight on the off stump, the batsman will be forced to make theplay and in doing so, may make mistakes.

BRIAN LARA: He has recently returned to form against Australia after a disappointing series against South Africa. He is a confidence player and when his feet are moving, he will pose big problems for the bowlers. He appears to be very vulnerable early on, therefore the bowler has the chance to genuinely dismissing him bowled, LBW and caught by the keeper or at slip because he tends to play away from the body with a big backlift. He is a positive player but he will be frustrated if he cannot dominate. The pressures of captaincy and high expectations from fanatical West Indian fans could affect his game.