If the bowlers don't bowl his line, KP will change sides © Getty Images

It was negative tactics in county cricket that prompted Kevin Pietersen's switch-hit, Frank Tyson writes in the Sportstar. He believes the innovation has added more excitement to the game, like other initiatives in the past.

Initially his counter was to employ his long reach, lengthen his open stance and slog the ball through the fielder-packed covers or, dangerously, over long-on.

But the bowler’s direction went wider and to follow was to risk rupture! Pietersen’s lateral thinking then moved him to adopt revolutionary batting methods. With the right-hander’s off-side field blocked, as the bowler moved in to deliver, Pietersen switched his stance to that of a left-hander. His right side was now his leading side. Importantly, the crowded off-side field, stripped of its packed off-side population became the left-hander’s leg-side and full of gaps. Scoring on that side of the wicket suddenly became much easier as instead of driving as a right-hander, he hooked and pulled as a left-hander!