A switch hit is a modern cricket shot. A switch hit involves the batter effectively changing from a right-hander to a left-hander (or vice versa) just before the ball is delivered by the bowler for the purpose of executing the shot. It is a variation of the reverse sweep, in which the hands on the bat handle are switched and the stance is changed during the bowler's delivery action, and has been compared to switch-hitting in baseball. Early history An early instance of a switch hit in Test matches happened in the fourth Test between Australia and England at Manchester in 1921. Australian captain Warwick Armstrong was bowling wide outside the leg stump to slow the scoring. To take advantage of the absence of fielders on the offside, Percy Fender switched his hands on the bat handle and played the ball towards cover point. The Times reported the shot thus: in dealing with Mr. Armstrong, he [Fender] contrived at times to get away and place the ball on the deserted off side. He once shifted hands on the handle of the bat and pulled him back-handed across the wicket to the place where cover-point generally stands. The Herald reported that the crowd laughed uproariously when Fender hit a "wide-pitched ball from Armstrong left-handed for two and converting a square cut into a square leg hit". In 1924 the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) ruled that the shot was illegal and a batsman using it should be given out "obstructing the field". New Zealand authorities, on the other hand, saw nothing wrong with it, and noted that the rare instances when it had happened had amused the players and the spectators. Like Percy Fender, the New Zealand cricketer and clergyman Ernest Blamires had also used it to counter the leg theory bowling of Warwick Armstrong. In Australia, The Australasian described the MCC ruling as "so ridiculous that it leaves one in wonderment", and noted that the Victorian batsman of the 1890s Dick Houston had employed the shot frequently. The modern shot In modern times, the shot is usually attributed to Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen played the shot in a Test match for the first time off Muttiah Muralitharan against Sri Lanka in May 2006, and used it again on 15 June 2008 in a one-day international against New Zealand. Despite the shot becoming known due to Pietersen's successful execution of it, it is