SYDNEY: Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has suggested the ICC to ban switch-hitting, saying the shot is “blatantly unfair” to the bowler and the fielding team.
In the ongoing ODI series between India and Australia, Glenn Maxwell and David Warner have caught the Indian bowlers off guard a number of times by playing the switch-hit.
A switch hit involves effectively changing from a right-hander to a left-hander just before the ball is delivered by the bowler for the purpose of executing the shot.
“The Australian batting has been exceptional. They’ve made it look pretty easy … Particularly Smith and Maxwell, some of the shots he plays are hard to believe. (Switch-hitting) is amazingly skillful – but it’s not fair,” Chappell told Wide World of Sports.
“It’s very simple. Maxwell hit a couple of (switch-hit) shots and Warner did (Sunday) night. All you’ve got to say is that if the batsman changes the order of his hands or his feet (as the bowler runs in), then it’s an illegal shot,” he said.
Chappell said if the batsman, like the bowler, notifies of his intention to play the switch-hit before hand then it is okay but otherwise it “blatantly unfair and annoying.”
“If the batsman is right-handed and wants to play switch-hit (in advance of the bowler running in), any bowler worth his salt will say, ‘Go for your life, mate, I’ll take my chances’. But when he completely becomes the opposite-handed batsman to what he faces up as, then it’s not fair.
“If he’s good enough to do it by excellent footwork or whatever other means he can devise, I don’t have a problem with it. But when it’s blatantly unfair, it annoys the hell out of me,” he added. (AGENCIES)
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