With its origins dating all the way back to the 16th century, cricket has evolved greatly over the years.
From changes in its laws to adopting entirely new formats, the game has always been in a constant state of flux. While cricket’s lawmakers and custodians have played their part in evolving the sport with time, there have also been several players along the way who have created their own impact.
These players have helped change the manner in which the game is approached and their legacy is permanently etched in stone. Whether it be introducing a completely new shot with the bat or bringing a fundamental shift in the game, these players are cricket’s greatest innovators.
As we look back on some of these visionaries of the game, it is hard to not mention the immeasurable genius of former England batsman Kevin Pietersen.
A controversial but undisputed star
Few players have divided opinions as sharply with the South Africa-born batsman’s outspoken, flamboyant and at times, individualistic personality constantly putting him at loggerheads with England’s team management and cricket administrators. Even fewer have managed to captivate fans and neutrals alike as Pietersen did with swashbuckling batting style.
It was evident from the very start that there was something special about the right-hander, and it didn’t take him too long to stamp his authority on international cricket. From his sensational ODI tour of South Africa in 2004 to his magnificent and series-winning Test debut against Australia in the 2005 Ashes, Pietersen was taking the world of cricket by storm in of the most devastating of introductions.
Controversies were never far away from the batsmen wherever he went, but on the cricket pitch, it was his bat which that did most of the talking. By the time he played out his final Test for England in 2014, Pietersen had racked up 13,797 international runs which were amassed with the help of 23 Test and nine ODI tons.
Titles such as ‘England’s greatest modern batsman’ have often been attached to Pietersen and it is easy to see why. Not only did he scorch the run-scoring charts, he did it in some style as well. You could always guarantee that his stay at the crease would be entertaining, with the towering man showing scant regard for the reputations of the greatest of bowlers.
No matter what the format, Pietersen always liked to impose his dominance over the bowlers and he could send the ball a fair distance into the stands with the help of those powerful shoulders. Supremely gifted, Pietersen was a man who was extremely confident in his abilities and he showed it with the way he approached batting.
He did things with the cricket willow that most other batsmen would never even dare to contemplate, and it came off for him more often than not. With his aggressive, bold and audacious approach to batting, watching Pietersen perform his art in the middle was pure theatre.
The Switch Hit
The ‘switch hit’ is a shot where the batsman completely changes his stance and grip from a right-hander to a left-hander or vice versa, at the time of delivery. While South Africa’s Jonty Rhodes did play a version of this shot once during an ODI against Australia in 2002, it was Pietersen who really revolutionised the stroke and ingrained it into the cricketing public’s consciousness. In its execution, it looks pretty similar to the reverse sweep which has become a widely used stroke over the last couple of decades. The difference between the two shots is that batsmen don’t change their grip and stance while executing the reverse sweep.
In theory and in execution, the switch hit is genius in the way it allows the batsman to take advantage of a field settings which favour the on-side. However, it is still a very risky manouvre and not one which is easy to pull off. The muscle power and timing required to successfully execute a switch hit, especially for a six like Pietersen often did, takes great skill and supreme confidence.
The first bowler to be on the receiving end of Pietersen’s switch hit was none other than off-spinning legend Muttiah Muralitharan. It happened during a Test between England and Sri Lanka in Edgbaston in 2006, with Pietersen smashing Muralitharan over cover for a six with a switch hit on his way to a 157-ball 142. Astonishing, outrageous and even preposterous were some of the adjectives thrown at that shot with even Murali acknowledging Pietersen’s craft in executing it to perfection.
The England batsman would not play that shot again for two whole years, before New Zealand’s Scott Styris was punished by it in extraordinary fashion during an ODI. Not once, but twice, was the Blackcaps all-rounder dispatched for six on the off side by Pietersen’s switch hit in the same innings.
That sequence of events stirred up a big debate over the ‘legality’ of the shot, with many even calling for it to be banned due to the disadvantage it puts the bowler and fielding team in. The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), though, gave the shot its seal of approval by stating that the shot was exciting for the game of cricket. In 2012, the ICC committee endorsed the MCC view and declared the switch hit as a fully legal shot.
Since then, the shot has become more commonly used, especially in the limited-overs formats. Australia’s David Warner and Glenn Maxwell are two notable exponents of it with the former even trialling a double-faced bat at one stage to generate better execution.
It will, however, be Pietersen’s name forever synonymous with the switch hit. Very rarely did he fail to find the boundary when executing that shot and the result was a six on most occasions. He remains one of the most exciting and innovative batsmen to have graced the sport and the switch hit is a significant part of his distinguished legacy to cricket.
