Former Australia Cricketer Urges ICC to Ban Glenn Maxwell’s Switch Hit: Read Why? 

After the first two ODIs between India and Australia where David Warner and Glenn Maxwell became the talk of the town while playing the switch-hit, former Australian batsman Ian Chappell isn’t in favour of this shot. 

Ian believes that switch-hitting is unfair to the bowler and the fielding team. He recently even asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to ban them.

Post IPL 2020, Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell is enjoying the ongoing ODI series against India. He has shown his best side and has also been phenomenal with the bat. In both the ODI matches, Maxwell has taken up the responsibility in the middle-order pretty well.

While performing during the recent matches, Maxwell also unleashed a number of his trademark switch hits which also made headlines. 

Among all the praises, it was Ian Chappell, who had unloaded his frustration at batting tactics employed by Glenn Maxwell and David Warner. 

During a conversation with Wide World of Sports, Chappell said “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 very skillful, some of its amazingly skillful - but it’s not fair."

“How can one side of the game, i.e. the bowlers, they have to tell the umpire how they’re going to bowl. And yet the batsman, he lines up as a right-hander - I’m the fielding captain, I place the field for the right-hander - and before the ball’s been delivered, the batsman becomes a left-hander,” Ian Chappell added.

Further talking about how ICC should take action to outlaw the switch-hitting, Chappell asserted that “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 noted. 

“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,” Chappell asserted.

So far in the ODI series, Australia have sealed the three-match series with a match remaining by registering convincing wins in the first two games.