•At Mohali, men like Mahela Jayawardene and Sangakkara allowed Yuvraj to throw his bat around. For India in England, he waged a lone battle.

•At Rajasthan, Warne planned the team’s batting around Yusuf Pathan, moving him up and down the order as required. For India, Pathan came in at No 6, and barely got a hit.

Almost all South Africans played the IPL, but the cap on the number of foreigners ensured they were slotted into roles that were similar in both their teams. Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith were top-order hitters for their IPL teams, Kallis got the No 3 spot for Bangalore, AB de Villiers was a middle-order buffer for Delhi and JP Duminy played innings-controller for Mumbai.

It can be argued that in football too players from different clubs come together for their national side. But in most cases, international football teams have long camps and hundreds of hours of training before big tournaments — and even then the club vs country debate is rampant. Don’t forget: Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has had wars of words with the England manager of the day before every major tournament for the last 22 years.