After Gambhir and Deep Dasgupta, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly bats for switch-hit
Former Indian skipper and incumbent BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has come out in support of the switch-hit after much debate on the shot. Former Aussie skipper Ian Chappell had stirred up the debate around the fairness of the shot and had called against allowing the shot in internationals.
Former Australian skipper Ian Chappell, who is one of the top-most cricket experts in the world, recently opened up the switch-hit debate after which many cricketers have come out and expressed their opinions on the innovative stroke. Chappell had termed the shot "unfair" and had stated that it should be scrapped after Glenn Maxwell had played the shot to perfection many times against the Men in Blue in the ODI series especially against Kuldeep Yadav.
However, after Gautam Gambhir and Deep Dasgupta came out in support of the switch-hit whilst stating that bowlers should also be allowed to switch-hands mid-way through the run-up too, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has also put his weight behind the extravagant shot.
Sourav Ganguly feels that there is no reason that this shot should be done away with as the game has moved on with time. He also added that the shot requires a lot of courage and skill and if someone has that, it's a very 'good shot'.
"The game has moved on, so I don't see why we can take away this popular stroke from the modern-day batsmen. You require a lot of strength to play such courageous shots. Apart from timing and feet movement, a lot of other things are required to play this stroke. Kevin Pietersen was the first to play this shot. Also David Warner's name should come here. It's a very good shot if you can hit it nicely," Ganguly was quoted as saying by Mid Day, reported TOI.
Switch-hit is considered as one of the most high-risk shots and barring Glenn Maxwell and David Warner, there aren't many batsmen who play the shot well. A while ago, renowned cricket journalist Ben Jones had tweeted, "Off the top of my head from some research I did a while ago, a T20 switch hit has a dismissal rate (shots-per-dismissal) of about 9, making it essentially the most dangerous shot in the game. Empirically, the switch hit is unfair - to batsmen."
The switch-hit was first played by Kevin Pietersen in 2008 against New Zealand in an ODI and was subsequently deemed a legal shot to play in professional cricket by MCC.
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