Sydney: Twenty20 fever is now catching up with bat makers, who are now trying to coming up with a design to enable batsmen to hit the ball with both sides of the blade.

Century old bat makers Gray-Nicolls has confirmed development of a prototype with a smaller, pressed hitting area on the reverse side.

Even Andrew Symonds, is said to be experimenting in practice with using the back of the bat, which so far have been restricted by its angular shape.

Bat maker Stuart Kranzbuhler insists these bats will be a revolutionary step in the game and will draw young hitters, looking for an advantage in Twenty20 cricket.

"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," Kranzbuhler was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It would really be a player that's developed himself purely for Twenty20 cricket who would play that sort of shot."

The back of the bat could be used to defuse full-length yorkers often employed by bowlers in Twenty20 cricket to restrict scoring options. With the back of the bat in play batsmen figure they can reach forward and "lap" it up over their shoulder to the undefended boundary behind first slip.

Kranzbuhler said the new bat would meet current International Cricket Council's (ICC) 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.

In net sessions, New South Wales (NSW) players have tried to employ the back of the bat - mostly those with an eye to a contract with the Indian Premier League.