How the ratings work
Real career data, a couple of honest judgement calls.
Every player in 5–0 carries a batting and a bowling rating, each out of 99. Almost all of it comes from their real Test career record.
Batting
A player's career batting average is mapped through a calibrated curve. The greats separate at the top, and a number 8 still reads like a number 8.
Bowling
Bowling average does most of the work, nudged by the things real selectors care about: how often you strike, how heavily you carry an attack, and the knack for running through a side.
The iconic overlay
A few players were bigger than their raw numbers, so there's a small, capped overlay for the x-factor ones. It's deliberately tiny; nobody is invented from nothing.
Conditions do the rest
Every ground has a surface that genuinely tilts the match. A spinner who's ordinary on a road can be unplayable in Galle. That's why the tour is revealed before you draft.
The balance of the series shifts each time you play. One draw leans to the seamers, the next turns square, another is flat and made for batting. So an all-pace or all-spin attack will come unstuck on the tours that don't suit it. Read the draw, then pick to cover it.
That's the gist. Now go draft an XI and try to go 5–0.