TWENTY20 has turned cricket on its head; now it's turning the bat around, inspiring a revolutionary design to enable batsmen to hit the ball with both sides of the blade.
Batsmen, including Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds, have been experimenting in practice with using the back of the bat but have been restricted by its angular shape. Even so, Australian captain Ricky Ponting indicated it was the type of innovation Australia's players had to explore.
That may become more viable now with bat manufacturer Gray-Nicolls confirming yesterday the development of a prototype with a smaller, flattened hitting area on the reverse side.
Batmaker Stuart Kranzbuhler was uncertain whether Test batsmen would consider the new model but young hitters, looking for an advantage in Twenty20 cricket, are already interested.
Certainly Kevin Pietersen will find it hard to ignore. The England captain raised eyebrows earlier this year when he twice switched from right-hander to left-hander mid-delivery and hit both balls for six in a Twenty20 match.
"It's a pretty unconventional shot (you play off the back) so I think true batsmen won't even look at doing something like that," said Kranzbuhler. "It would really be a player that's developed himself purely for Twenty20 cricket who would play that sort of shot."
Kranzbuhler said the new bat would meet International Cricket Council specifications and could be made without reducing hitting power from the front. Pressing the back would make it about 10 millimetres thinner.
"We've looked at having an area on the back of the bat that's pressed as well (as the front), just in the centre area. That's as far as we've got and we've made a few prototypes but they look pretty rank," he said.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/cricket/batting-both-ways-a-twenty20-revolution/2008/11/12/1226318743492.html
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Topic: GN Double Pressed Bat (Read 5378 times)