Scott Styris wants a fair contest between the batters and bowlers.
The veteran Indian spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin, recently demanded that the batsman should be given out leg before wicket if he misses a shot while playing a reverse sweep.
Ashwin believes that if a batter plays reverse sweep and hits like a left-handed batter, it is no longer a 'blind spot', so he should be given a leg before out.
Now, former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris shared his opinion on the issue, saying he completely agrees with Ashwin and demanded a complete ban on the shot.
However, he completely disagreed with the solution given by Ashwin. Notably, according to the current rules, if the ball pitches outside the leg-stump, then the batsman cannot be given out LBW, even if the ball hits the batsman's pad in the line.
Read Also: R Ashwin calls it unfair not to give LBW decisions against switch hits if batters miss
Scott Styris said on Sports18’s daily sports news show ‘Sports Over The Top’: “Well, I sort of gotta go back half a step here. I loved a lot of the points that Ashwin made. I completely disagreed with all his solutions. I actually think even though we just had some fun with the switch hit, I think the switch hit should be banned completely. There are rules for captains and bowlers in terms of where their fieldsmen can be, how many behind point, how many on the leg side, all of these things.”
He continued, “So, I don’t think a batsman should be able to change his hands over and I don’t believe he should be able to change his feet. You can play the reverse sweep or the reverse hit if you like but I don’t like this. In terms of the hands, Kevin Pietersen has completely flipped around as a left-hander.”
Styris concluded, “If you take away the switch hit, but allow all the reverse sweeps and reverse hits, then I think you don’t have to worry about the LBW law that Ashwin is talking about. And it allows a fair contest between the bowler and the batsman as well.”