KP's left hand switch - exciting innovation or illegal travesty?

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Forget IPL turning international cricket on its head, the latest scandal that has English grey beards tutting into their teas is Kevin Pietersen's left handed switch. The MCC have hastily convened an emergency meeting in their ivory tower to decide whether to add a new rule making a mid-delivery batting grip switch illegal. An interesting perspective comes from Paul Collingwood, a man not known for batting innovation, who was at the non-striker's end when it happened:

"I covered my eyes as soon as he turned his body around. I was quite surprised and I went 'Oh no' but he smashed it. In fact he smashed it twice. He did actually come up the wicket and say 'I was thinking about that in bed last night,' so at least we know the visualisation was there."

So now we know what KP thinks about in bed. Good to know. Personally, I think if a batsman has the stones to back his ability and attempt such a risky shot, more power to him. And to those bemoaning another disadvantage against bowlers in this batsman-friendly era, Daniel Vettori has an elegant solution that should even the ledger:

"The only thing I would say about it is that if you're going to bat left-handed then I think to even it up for the bowlers you should have both sides of the wide line. That would bring your skill into play and the wicketkeeper's skill into play, if a batsman wants to change then it should be fair for both ball and batsmen."

So if a bowler sees the batsman switch his grip, he can easily shoot the ball down the legside (which was previously the offside) without fear of being called a wide. It's a risk free delivery - most bowlers would have a third man so the boundary is safe. Just hope you have a good wicketkeeper.

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Posted by JC on Tue 17 Jun

3 comments

JC, Did u mean "which is now becomes offside"( Now my visualization has got messed up). But then still Bowler is at Umpire's Mercy ain't he??

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Posted by Unsuidojo on 2008-06-17 10:17:34

Okay, bowling to right hander. He switches to left handed. So you bowl it down the left hander's leg side. Harder to hit the ball going down leg so easy dot ball. But the leg side wide rule doesn't apply because he switched mid-delivery.

If he does connect, he sends it down to third man (or now that he's a leftie, fine leg). The batsman exposes a lot of risk for at best a single.

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Posted by JC on 2008-06-17 11:35:55

We have seen a lot of batsmen switching to play reverse shots before but I do not remember one hit so clean to clear the boundary on the full. There have been quite a few innovative shots in the recent years but seldom have we seen people lasting long playing those shots (the longest I remember was of Douglas Marillier a few years back against India). However, I do not see a reason for anybody to convene an emergency meeting for this single incidence :)

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Posted by riz on 2008-06-18 09:22:48

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