Glenn Maxwell plays a switch hit in an ODI vs India at the Sydney Cricket Ground, December 2020. (Photo: Cricket Australia)The switch hit has been one of the most heated topics of debates between the batters and the bowlers in contemporary cricket. A right handed batter can become left handed, nullify all the field adjustments a team, a bowler has made in a split second, and get the maximum out of it. India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin recently took to his YouTube channel to suggest that batters should be adjudged LBW if they try the shot and miss.
“Let batters play the switch hit, but give us LBW when they miss. How can you say it is not LBW when the batter turns? If they start giving that out in all formats of the game, some parity could be retained between bowling and batting,” Ashwin said.
Former New Zealand international Scott Styris though, believes the shot needs to be banned.
“I actually think even though we just had some fun with the switch hit, I think the switch hit should be banned completely,” the 47-year old said recently on Sports18.
Subscriber Only Stories
“Well, I sort of gotta go back half a step here. I loved a lot of the points that Ashwin made. I completely disagreed with all his solutions. There are rules for captains and bowlers in terms of where their fieldsmen can be, how many behind point, how many on the leg side, all of these things.”
“So, I don’t think a batsman should be able to change his hands over and I don’t believe he should be able to change his feet. You can play the reverse sweep or the reverse hit if you like but I don’t like this. In terms of the hands, Kevin Pietersen has completely flipped around as a lefthander. If you take away the switch hit, but allow all the reverse sweeps and reverse hits, then I think you don’t have to worry about the LBW law that Ashwin is talking about. And it allows a fair contest between the bowler and the batsman as well.”
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
