Can AI make you a better cricketer? Str8bat co-founder Gagan Daga thinks so

As they say, cricket is more than a sport in India. The game is an emotion and is literally worshipped across the nation. You can go to a metro city or a small town, and you will find someone imitating a batting stance or trying to bowl like a superstar on the streets. However, if that’s not enough to convince you, then how about the packed stadiums during the matches? Whether it be an international match or a domestic league, you’ll always find fans cheering for the players. Yet for decades, if you, as an amature player, have ever wanted to improve your game, you were bound by access. While the professional teams use technology and data at a big stage, the grassroots players often depend only on experience and limited feedback. This is where Str8bat comes into play, as cricket has always had statistics like scorecards, averages, strike rates, and match reports. And these numbers show what happened in a match but not ‘why’ it happened.

That gap between performance and understanding is where sports technology companies are beginning to make an impact. Str8bat uses technology that uses sensors, software and artificial intelligence to explain player performance, helping batters and coaches understand strengths, mistakes, and areas for improvement. The company’s small sticker-like device attaches to a cricket bat and captures detailed movement data, giving players insights into aspects of their game that are otherwise difficult to track consistently.

During a recent interaction with Digit, Str8bat co-founder Gagan Daga spoke about the evolution of the company, the role of AI in sports, the science powering its products, and why he believes data-driven coaching can help players from grassroots cricket all the way to the professional stage. Here are the key excerpts from the conversation.

Looking beyond the scoreboard

The problem with traditional sports analysis is not the lack of statistics, says the co-founder Gagan Daga. He said that it’s the type of statistics that are commonly used. Cricket, like many sports, is largely judged through outcomes, which include runs, wickets, catches and strike rates. However, Daga believes that these are all retrospective measurements, as they explain what happened after the fact rather than providing clues about future performance.

‘Sports are completely measured by what has happened. There are no leading indicators that describe the game and help you perform better consistently,’ Daga explained during the conversation.

When a player is struggling, the first thing that a coach or analyst does is review game footage and practice sessions and assess what the problem is. While this method may work, it depends a lot on analysis. Objective motion measurements could be yet another way to gain insight.

According to Daga, metrics like bat speed, impact speed, bat path, timing, balance and consistency of sweet spot contact can give clues about trends in an athlete’s performance before they become apparent in game statistics. In his opinion, such metrics are similar to leading indicators used in economics and finance. They give advance notice to allow athletes to make adjustments to their performance before it worsens significantly.

The idea behind Str8bat 

The origins of Str8bat go back to 2017, when the company set out to create a product capable of measuring batting performance in a simple and accessible way. Instead of relying on costly cameras or special infrastructure, the researchers wanted to develop something that would blend seamlessly into a batsman’s natural play pattern. This led to the development of a small sensor that is attached to the cricket bat itself. Despite its small size, the device captures a significant amount of movement information every time a player trains or plays. The sensor activates through motion, records data during use and automatically enters sleep mode when left idle to conserve battery life.

At first glance, the hardware appears remarkably simple as it comes with a form factor that does not interfere with batting technique or require players to change the way they train. Summarising the philosophy that has guided the product’s development, Daga said, ‘What you cannot measure, you cannot improve.’ He further added that the aim is not merely to collect numbers but to provide meaningful feedback that players can act upon, and by turning bat movement into measurable data, Str8bat seeks to make the invisible parts of batting visible.

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Capturing cricket without cameras

One of the most intriguing features of the product is that it analyses movement without using any camera systems. For most people, sports analytics involves video recording systems, yet this company decided to tackle the problem in an unusual manner.

The sensor records the movement of the bat itself and converts it into a model of the shot. Then, players receive visual representations of all important aspects, including bat path, impact position, swing characteristics and others, from different angles. This way, players receive a new level of visibility, which would require lots of additional equipment and analysis to achieve otherwise.

For players, it means that instead of having to remember what happened or listen to verbal instructions from coaches, they receive objective visual representations of their shots. Given that batting happens within mere milliseconds, it becomes very important.

Daga pointed out that a typical downswing happens within a few hundred milliseconds. In this small window of time, even professional players may fail to grasp the correct process of motion required to achieve a certain outcome. The visual feedback provided by being able to view these motions enables them to analyse patterns and improvements made in their game.

Why does AI come after the data?

In a technology landscape where AI is often presented as the answer to everything, Str8bat takes a different approach. According to Daga, the platform first relies on motion physics and deterministic models to understand exactly what happened during a batting action. ‘Whatever analytics you see, whatever visualisation you see in the app, is based on motion physics,’ he said, adding that these outputs are ‘facts and should not be confused with probabilities.’

Before any recommendation is made, sensors collect raw signals that are processed through the company’s proprietary motion stack. This stage focuses entirely on physics-based calculations and scientific modelling to create an accurate representation of the player’s movement.

Only after this deterministic analysis is complete does AI come into play. Daga said the AI interprets the validated motion data to generate recommendations, rather than relying on probabilistic guesses or assumptions.

Turning numbers into coaching advice

Once the platform understands what happened during a session, AI helps transform that information into something useful for the player. Raw statistics can often be overwhelming, especially for younger athletes or recreational players who may not have a technical understanding of biomechanics.

Furthermore, the Str8bat’s AI layer is designed to bridge that gap by translating complex performance metrics into simple observations, recommendations and coaching-style insights. The app can highlight improvements in timing, identify strengths in certain areas of batting and point out trends across multiple sessions. Rather than presenting users with endless charts, it attempts to explain performance in plain language.

‘We use AI a lot for insights creation, for recommendations, for every shot’s strength analysis,’ Daga said. Moreover, the company does not rely on generic internet data for these recommendations. Instead, its AI systems are trained on years of collected performance information, internal research and sports-specific knowledge developed by the team. According to Daga, this allows the platform to provide recommendations that remain closely tied to the realities of cricket performance.

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Str8bat: Expansion plans

One of the biggest opportunities for sports technology in India lies beyond the country’s major metropolitan centres, where access to elite coaching and performance infrastructure remains limited. Although urban academies enjoy the advantages of dedicated trainers, sophisticated gadgets, and performance support systems, many promising cricketers in small towns still resort to traditional ways of coaching with less personalised feedback.

According to Daga, the technology will allow bridging the divide between professionals and amateurs in terms of the availability of professional insights on performances. By leveraging the Str8bat’s connected system, cricketers get immediate feedback after each training session, thus being able to review their performances, track the results, and make necessary adjustments right away without waiting for occasional coaching camps or visits to the academy. Access to such a wealth of information can be of great help for those cricketers who cannot afford professional training facilities.

When asked about the coexistence of the technology with the coaches, Daga said that ‘the technology is aimed at assisting rather than replacing coaches.’ By providing players and coaches with objective data on performances, it will make it possible to make more informed decisions about how to develop the skills of players.

Daga further told Digit that the company is also planning to move beyond cricket and is currently developing a tool that could help the players in athletics. While the details about the product are still under wraps, Daga confirmed that the product will be launched in the upcoming months. He further added that the company is also planning to head to other sports like baseball, football, basketball, tennis and more in the near future, and the things are already set in motion.