If you suspected that the nonstop six hitting wunderkinds of the IPL are not really better batters than the preceding generation of cricketers, they just have better technology, then this is the article for you. Through a series of revealing graphics Nihal Koshie & Sandeep Dwiwedi of The Express show you how dramatically bats have changed over the past 20 years to accommodate power hitting. They write:
“The curve in the willow and the facilitation of the precise angle where it makes contact with the leather plays a big role in sending it to the stands
There’s a nonchalance about Hardik Pandya when he hits his trademark no-look sixes; his timing, skill and power make it look easy. Aiding the star in clearing the rope is his bat with a curve in the front – a radical innovation that has been around for a while now but has largely gone unnoticed.
The revolutionary ‘bat tweak’ originated in the 1990s when Sachin Tendulkar came up with a query for his bat manufacturer. He had noticed that his bats would develop a nice sweet spot – the wood would get compressed, giving the willow a ‘good dent’ – when used over a period of time. ‘Was it possible to have a readymade sweet spot?’ was Tendulkar’s question. And the answer was ‘yes’ and the bats were no longer flat as a chopping board. They were also convex.
With time, the dent got deeper and broader and the process more scientific. Researchers would bank on the laws of physics, carve the bat keeping in mind the principles of the angle of incidence and reflection. The result is constantly evolving game-changing cricket equipment that is silently and methodically putting cricket on steroids, making six-hitting a frequent event. The ‘bats with arc’ are T20’s unsung heroes, the anonymous crowd-pullers.
Hardik’s skills, his training, aided by his bat, make him a front-runner in the arms race among six-hitters. His bat has nearly 200 percent more curve than the competition, claims Meerut-based manufacturer Sanspareils Greenlands (SG).”
Other than graphics, the article is worth reading in full to understand just how much science and skill Indian bat manufacturers & batters now deploy to produce the most powerful cricket bats in the world:
“Behind the scenes, in this drive to stay ahead, is a collaboration between researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, mechanical engineers at SG, and Hardik himself. It isn’t unusual for the India star to travel to Meerut and ask questions, and give suggestions, to the engineers poring through bat dimensions.”
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