A switch hit is a shot where a batsman changes his handedness and posture to adopt a stance the mirror image of his traditional handedness while the bowler is running in to bowl. As a fielding team cannot manoeuvre fielders while the bowler is in his run-up, the fielding side is effectively wrong-footed with the fielders out of position. The shot was pioneered by Kevin Pietersen, first performed off the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan in England's 2006 home series against Sri Lanka. It was subsequently used in the New Zealand series in England in 2008 when Pietersen performed the shot twice in the same innings on his way to making an unbeaten century. David Warner, the Australian opening batsman, is also a frequent user of the switch hit and used it to great effect to the Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the first Twenty20 of the Indian cricket team's tour to Australia 2012 .
The legality of the switch hit was questioned when first introduced, but cleared by the International Cricket Council as legal. The shot is risky because a batsman is less proficient in the other handedness and is more likely to make a mistake in the execution of his shot.