Taking cricket bat to next level - Harshal and Samir Shah

You have heard of bespoke dresses; bespoke cars and bikes and now it is the turn for bespoke 'Cricket BATs'. Yes, you have read it right! While there are ways and means to choose the right shoes and shirt sizes - what fits and is effective. However, when it comes to Cricket despite the whole nation being crazy about the game-there was no customisation when it came to the willows until Z-Bat came into the scene. With scientific algorithms and sensor-based technology findings, these Bats can be your key the elusive success. Cricket enthusiasts and passionate about the sport to the core, Harshal and Samir Shah, the founders of Z-BAT, set out to find the right cricket bat for themselves and in the process unpuzzled the missing link of 'How does one find the Right Cricket Bat' while they play the sport.

Harshal is a Masters Graduate in commerce from the University of Mumbai and is running three successful hotel brands for 15 years. Harshal informs since childhood, cricket has been a major part of his life and he is regular at club level tournaments in Mumbai. "Finding the perfect bat for every cricketer has been my goal and I look forward to changing the way India approaches to buying cricket bats through Z-Bats," he shares.

Samir is an electrical engineer by profession and has been managing the family business of electrical, mechanical and civil tools trading. Like Harshal he also loves cricket and runs a cricket academy for kids up to 8 years of age. Apart from that, he regularly plays cricket at club level. "My fondness for sports and technology led me to delve deeper into the scientific aspects of the game, which helped us come up with scientific algorithms that define the right cricket bat," Samir says.

Excerpts from an interview

How did you collaborate?

Harshal: We knew each other for a long time as we have played club cricket together. I was always intrigued by the science of sports and wanted to find the perfect bat for cricket lovers. We used to discuss it and then we collaborated to change the way India buys cricket bats.

Samir: I always thought that there was no right parameter or logarithms available that helped find the right cricket bat and both of us shared the vision and we decided to work together and came up with the idea of Z-Bat.

Mentor and start-up pioneer G Ramachandran provided his valuable inputs and helped us in forming this brand-new start-up to build bespoke, gender-neutral cricket bats called Z-Bats. The concept has been executed in just 6 months and we hope to bring about a revolution in the way India approaches to buying cricket bats.

What is the idea behind the concept of Z-Bat?

In a country like India, where cricket is a religion, sports science has still not developed as much. Most people still go for the bats which their favourite cricketer uses.

That's why, we founded this Sports Tech Company that will make uni-gender, bespoke bats for the first time in India. It will revolutionise the entire concept and functionality of cricket bats. It is backed with scientific algorithms and sensor-based technology that will help batters identify their strengths and weaknesses and improve as a cricketer and also keep themselves injury-free. Not only do we have introduced the bat accessories like bat wax which helps the bats to function better, yet another first concept in India.

What kind of research did you do?

Harshal: We knew there is an opportunity and need in the market. While we studied in-depth and figured there are 344 types of batters in the age category of 8-80 years in the Indian batting conditions. This is what spurred us to come up with the concept and then based on our findings we ran a mini-survey among close to 100 fellow club cricketers in Mumbai and the feedbacks were positive and promising and the need was endorsed by one and all and we decided to go ahead with Z-Bat-India's first bespoke Bat makers. We also refurbish the bats and are going to soon launch Online Bat Repairer with a national footprint.

What is the process of making these bats?

The Z-Bats are handcrafted from the finest English and Kashmir willows and the handles are turned from Singapori Cane. The blades are not bleached white as each blade holds its own natural characteristics providing strength and rebound to the bat. We have employed a complete 'Make in India' approach to bat making wherein we are also empowering carpenters and training them to become professional bat smiths. And these bats backed with technology find helps to choose the right bats.

How will these bats help a cricketer?

When you meet the right body balance then your shot timing betters, and we all know once that happens scoring runs and amassing it is not a difficult task. The sensor-based technology aided with the bats helps to crunch the algorithm that identifies a player's strength and weaknesses. With our customised batting report a player can know where he or she needs to put in more work and better as a batter. Z-Bats identifies the right cricket bats and enhances performance and most importantly they help to avoid injury with this unique body dynamics detection.

Are these bats approved by any governing body?

The bats are made by ICC approved vendor following all ICC guidelines in terms of length of the bat, the thickness of blade and edges including the stickers on the bat are as per the sizes permitted and approved by the highest cricketing body in World Cricket. Anyone playing in domestic and international levels can use Z-Bat if they want to.

What are your future plans?

We have opened an experiential Z-Bat Clinic in Parel, Mumbai and our next stop is Bengaluru, where cricket too is a religion. Z-Bat also plans to reach out to the global market as the uniqueness of our findings has caught the fancy of many in the business both in India and abroad.