Watch: En route to his much-criticised fifty against the Mumbai Indians, left-handed Delhi Capitals captain David Warner switched his stance to play a right-handed slice off a free hit.

It was a switch hit, but not new for Warner either. Back in the 2019 Bangladesh Premier League, Warner used apparently less dominant hand to hit Chris Gayle for six, four, four in three consecutive balls.

Ahead of this season’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Warner practised batting right-handed in the nets, presumably to combat the off-break of R Ashwin in the Test matches.

Despite losing Prithvi Shaw early, Delhi raced to 61-1 in 6.2 overs. Then off-spinner Hrithik Shokeen overstepped, Manish Pandey pulled, and the batters crossed over to get Warner on strike for the free hit.

To win the ‘match-up’ against the off-spinner, Warner switched to a right-handed stance. Shokeen pitched short from around the wicket and Warner attempted a brutal pull, but the bat turned in his hand, and he ended up slicing it upwards. The ball soared over wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan, and the batters ran a single.

Warner, at this point on 26 from 22 balls, meandered his way to a 47-ball 51, but Axar Patel’s 25-ball 54 propelled Delhi to 172 as Piyush Chawla finished with 3-22 and Jason Behrendorff with 3-23.

At the time of writing, Mumbai are 82-1 in nine overs with Rohit Sharma on 47 and Tilak Varma on three.

Watch David Warner plays right-handed pull-shot here: