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We’d bet that there aren’t many reading this site, but there are nevertheless a great number of people out there who’d brand Kevin Pietersen’s switch hitting ‘irresponsible’.
It really isn’t. He doesn’t just do it on a whim. He decided it was a good way of scoring runs with a certain field in place and then he practised it until it was just another shot. Pietersen’s confident enough playing the stroke that he feels it’s no riskier than any other.
If you’ve any doubt about the worth of the stroke. Take Harbhajan Singh’s words about how to bowl at a man playing it:
“I don’t know how to react. I wish I could just hit him with the bat.”
After hitting 144 against India at Mohali, Pietersen was out playing a defensive stroke down the wrong line. Idiot. How dare the England captain play so irresponsibly.
I think the main importance of this is the issues it raises vis-a-vis the lbw law. Specifically, what is his leg stump, if he switches hands? Does he become a left-hander? If so, then that means that any right hander can switch hands and pad up to anything outside off, because now it’s his leg stump. If it doesn’t make him a left hander, why not? What if I hold the bat with both hands at the same place, holding the same amount of handle? What if I don’t hold the bat at all?
It doesn’t make him a left-hander because he addressed the wicket as a right-hander and the fielding team bowled to him as such.
What he does subsequently is between him and his rabbi.
This is a non-topic, an area with no contention, no acrimony and no real confusion.
Just enjoy it.
Michael Holding whinging on Sky last summer is the only reason for the perception there was any contention.
First of all, the switch shot executed by KP is NOT risky at all. It is as much risky as a forward defensive.
Ofcourse it would be risk if you or me or even Bradman played it.The point is,KP is ambidextrous when it comes to batting .He practises the shot for hours and has perfected it.People are prone to misjudging risk in life(credit crisis anyone?).cricket is no exception.
Bradman and the rest of us arent ambidextrous and we dont practise switch hitting either.In the hands of a pro like KP,it is just a regular cricketing shot.
Now if a bowler were as skillful to change his bowling from left arm to right arm in the middle of an over..all power to him
Show me one player practicing to block the ball on the off stump by quickly and skillfully switching his grip and showing great skill to block the ball with his feet at the right moment. It is pointless to even discuss that. Obviously only KP has mastered a unique way of scoring with the right timing and skill and there is no reason why it should be illegal.
what the hell does “addressed the wicket” mean? who says the fielding team bowled to him as such? is it down in writing? is there some sort of pre-match agreement about this? let’s say pietersen’s next innings is comprised entirely of switch hits. what does that make him?
no one’s being bitter about it. it’s a damn good shot, and it’s nice to see a bit of imagination in international cricket. but the lbw issues are very real.
The Laws of cricket say it Mr E. As the bowler starts his run up, whichever hand you are batting with is determined then – which means leg stump and off stump are decided then, so there’s no issue with the LBW law. Simple.
It is written down and as KKP says, it is a non-topic.
A fun little quote from KP – taken out of context for schoolboy humour reasons.
“When you get left-arm filth like that it makes you feel really good.”
He also called Yuvraj a ‘Pie-Chucker’, although it isn’t recorded whether or not he said it in a northern accent.
I’m hazarding a guess here, but I think E normous is Michael Holding..
Come on, own up, you’re whispering death aren’t you?
If not, why the f*ck would you care so much?
actually I had no idea that was there in the laws. alrighty then. I have no point. I would like to be “whispering death” but I’m more along the lines of “mumbling pain in the arse”…
I am ambidextrous. Can throw with both hands but can’t hit shit with it. I can bat both left handed and right-handed, again equally shit. I can bowl pie-chuckers with both arms and the only time I got three wickets in a single over was when I was bowling my pie-s and switched hands in mid-stride. Nobody picked it up. Which goes to show – what KP does is more entertaining in the hands of a competent clown. As for Yuvraj’s pies, KP might as well accept that it ain’t a pie if you get out to it all the time.