Sachin reveals how a waiter’s advice changed his technique

"If you have an open mind you can develop so many things. In Chennai, it was a waiter who came up to me and said if you don't mind and don't get offended I want to tell you something. I said go ahead. He said my elbow guard restricts my bat swing. And he was 100 percent right,” Sachin said, reported India Today.

"I knew I was feeling uncomfortable but I never thought of doing it myself. A few years down the line I got hit a couple of times on my elbow guard and it hurt. That's when I realised padding on elbow guard is inadequate. I instantly redesigned my elbow guard. I needed to re-open it and work on it. Get the fibre and cushion on either side to absorb the impact. In our country, everyone from panwala to CEOs will give you advice. But one should still be open about ideas."

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With his willow, he created magic and it was perhaps not a surprise why his bat caught the eye more often than not. Sachin revealed how he used to sense the condition of his bat by hearing the sound off it by flicking it with his finger.  

"Dwayne Bravo and Pollard once asked me what I do by checking the sound of the bat with my finger. I told them the bat speaks with me. They tried to bowl me a fast one. They brought me four top bats and asked me to check them. I checked the sound they made with my finger, the way I normally do and told them they were ok but not great. I placed them in an order of the best to the rest for them.

"They then gave me another bat saying it was a practice bat and asked me to check that one. I checked and told them their practice bat was actually the real bat. Both started laughing.

"It turned out I got the order right and picked the best bat correctly. They were just trying to test me," he said.