Sai Sudharsan’s Power Play: Unpacking the scientific approach of Southpo for T20 batting. Cricket news

New Delhi: At the beginning of the season, Gujarat’s Titans (GT) opener Sisudhrasan told Timesopyndia.com, how he worked extensively on the technical aspects of his game to meet the demands of T20 cricket without losing his natural sports style. Southpow had talked about his mindset, but he kept his card close to his chest, which he did.Last year, when Sai Reformson was with India’s team in Australia, he approached Power-Hitting Coach Sean Young to work on his T20 batting. Young, an expert Power-Hitting Coach, who has worked with the choice of Glenn Maxwell, Manenas Lebschen, Babar Azam and Jake Fraser-Maxgurk, invited Southpo in his cricket performance laboratory in Melbourne.“His bat starts on the ground and his hands are very low. He generates a lot of power from his backlift. His backlift crosses his shoulders, similar to Brian Lara. Therefore, in backing, he produces a lot of speed, when he really brings through Downwing, he gives more power than the mechanics that gives him more power.

A few days ago at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Sai Reformson arrived on a triple-fiber score with a six, which went directly as an arrow on the head of bowler Kuldeep Yadav. He chased with six. He is currently leading the IPL 2025 runs chart with 617 runs. This is not just the number of runs he has created; This is the way they scored them. Their strike rate is 156.99. In this season, he hit the most boundaries (68) and sixes (20) in his IPL career.Despite playing an aggressive brand of cricket, Sai reforms hardly lose size. Against Delhi’s capitals, he showed a full range of shots. He also pulled, cut, washed away some dinky ramp shots on both sides of the wicket.“A lot of people now, it has started holding the bat at a higher level, it has become a very modern trend, especially in T20 and power-touching, really to start with the bat. This theory that can be very successful if you produce everything through downwing, especially in T20 and power-touching.So his game is completely compatible with all three formats, “he says.ShapeYoung credit credits the stable base and height of the credit reforms for not losing size by hitting large sixes in T20.“He has a truly stable base, and I was surprised when he came in. He is quite tall. I don’t know his actual height, perhaps six feet two inches [just over six feet]The interesting thing with this is that it is a long bats. When he generates power through the backlift through his hands, his base is stable, and he does not need to do anything else to generate that power. So he can do it through a really stable base, and then he really uses the ground, resulting in a really fluent batting swing, “Young explains.

Young shows that Sai has the highest record of any professional player he has done in the laboratory. “This means that the distance between his outer arms is much higher than its height. It also helps with the swinging energy and energy to the bat,” he says.WorkSai Reformson reached the youth with the help of his old Surrey team colleagues, Cobe Herf and a couple of Laurie Evans. Young and his team prepared a presentation supported by data and biomechanics. The opener spent three hours in the lab with his elder brother Sai Ram and mother Usha Bhardwaj.“We did not do much technically with him. We talked about how he uses land. We have a balance plate here, as part of the bat fitting process, allows us to understand how much force goes through the ground. So when you understand the science of power hitting, so much is how much we generate with the body. Most biomechanical analysis and science suggest that the greatest power we can generate is using that stored energy through the ground.Who is that IPL player?“So the analogy that I use is, ‘imagine a spring. If you are standing on a spring and then take your legs away from the spring, what happens to the spring? It will jump.” Now this is because Vasant has stored energy. Hence power hitting is very similar; The energy that we collect in our body before reaching the point of contact is the energy that moves through the ball to the point of contact, “Young explains.

The strong and balanced body state of a batsman provides a foundation to generate power and maintain control.

What is a stable basis?

Young says why Sai looks so elegant even while hitting big shots, as he does not play high-risk games, unlike the current T20 backers such as Fraser-Mackgurk, Travis Head, or Abhishek Sharma.“Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Fraser-Mackgrak-way are playing high-risk cricket. Return is high, but the risk is also high. Now, Shubman Gill and Sai Reforms in GT are reducing the risk by playing traditional cricket shots, but with high impact, “they say.What is BPI?During Sai’s visit to the lab, Chris Hall, who works in the lab as a bat fitter, pointed out some problems with five bats, Sai was carrying them with them.

With Shayan Young Shay Sudarshan and Chris Hall, who work in the lab as a bat fitter. (Special arrangement)

“I think they had five bats, all cute bats. All were used in different stages. The thing is, when coming in professionals, obviously they have some new bats, they have their favorite, and what we do is that we modify their bats so that they all effectively swing them in the same way.“So in those five bats, there were minor changes in weight and size. It is also what we do in the performance lab; we actually modify bats to the same BPI,” they say.“BPI is a balance point index. It is our technology that we use to determine how a bat swings and feels, essentially a player’s bat matches his swing technology and physical strength,” Young says.

A proprietary technique developed by Shannon Young’s Cricket Performance Lab clearly measure how a bat swings and feels, and to match it with a player’s technique and strength.

What is BPI (Balance Point Index)?

“Traditionally, when you have a bat, we say everything on weight, a certain weight, and he would say, ‘I like it,’ and you guys do metrics. Whatever we bat, it is still an old school, is still in pound or Imperial. But we all have the ability to do as cricket players and coaches, selection of bats on weight and how they look, you know, you will see people ping and flick for all that kind of items. Now what we did, we have come with a BPI metric which allows us to have an objective measurement on the spirit of the cricket bat.

Cricket Performance Lab in Melbourne Sai Reformson and his modified bats. (Special arrangement)

“What happened when Sai happened and he hit all his bats, and we measured his exhaust velocity, his launch angle, how much ground he had, his bat velocity, backlift angle. We captured the pile of data, and we moved through five bats and then showed it to the data that really performed best.

The distance from the fingers of one hand to the other’s fingers when the weapon falls out horizontally. In cricket, a large wingpan can help in leverage and bat swing.

What is Wingspan?

“Then we took the other four bats and made them exactly the same as he used to perform best. I took his bats, modified them, and the next day returned them to his hotel. I think he was leaving the next day, so we raised his bats more than normal,” they say.When he sits in the IPL 2025 runs chart, Sudarshan is not just pretending, making a compelling case for the future of Indian batting: one that mixes data-managed preparations with traditional grace.

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