‘If technology can help develop players a little quicker and make coaching more informed, then it has done its job.’
In IPL 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders partnered with Google Gemini while 9 out of the 10 franchises had AI companies as sponsors or partners in some way or another.
Last year former captain Sourav Ganguly joined hands with UK-based AI cricket coaching platform Kabuni and in May this year, India’s Test vice-captain K L Rahul partnered with a Bengaluru-based tech startup str8bat to launch the KLR1 x str8bat kit, an AI-powered batting platform.
Key Points
- Advanced Impactor uses a single smartphone camera to analyse batting and bowling sessions with AI.
- Founder Amit Sharma says the idea was born from his experience as a cricket parent.
- Former India wicket-keeper Deep Dasgupta has joined as a mentor, helping shape the platform from a cricketing perspective.
- Dasgupta says AI should support coaches and scouts, not replace their instinct or judgement.
- The platform aims to make data-driven analysis available to grassroots players without expensive multi-camera systems.
While technology is mostly associated with elite teams and players, one company aims to take their AI platform right down to the masses, using a single smartphone.
In April, startup Advanced Impactor developed a beta version of an AI-powered cricket performance platform aimed at making AI-based coaching accessible.
The app, that was launched last month, allows the use of a single smartphone camera to capture a full batting or bowling session, generating an AI report covering shot classification, footwork, biomechanics, pace, line and length, and pitch maps, with much of the processing handled on-device for a fast turnaround.
Users can also upload previously recorded videos including footage not captured on the app for the same AI-powered analysis, giving players and coaches flexibility beyond live, in-app recording.
How Advanced Impactor Was Born
Advanced Impactor has partnered with Oxfordshire Cricket, with former India wicket-keeper Deep Dasgupta joining the venture as a mentor, providing technical input during its development.
“Advanced Impactor was born from a simple problem I experienced as a cricket parent. When I started this, it wasn’t from a business plan — it came from being a cricket parent. My son has been training for the last three-four years, indoors and outdoors here in the United Kingdom, and I was the one standing behind him at practice nets listening to coaches saying, ‘your head is falling’ or ‘you’re bowling is short’ and we had no way to actually make him visualise what that meant in the moment,” says Amit Sharma, founder & CEO, Advanced Impactor.
“Professional teams have had this solved for years through expensive multi-camera analytics. What didn’t exist was something a regular player or parent could use with just a phone, to see and visualise, not just listen, what needed to change,” adds Sharma.
Unlike other apps that use multiple camera rigs for analysis, “We built one AI-powered application that captures a full training session both batting and bowling — from a single camera,” says Sharma.
“On the batting side, you get shot classification, footwork, head position, full biomechanics, even 3D angles and wagon wheel. On the bowling side, it’s pace, line and length, deverted into an AI-generated performance report after every session and where they’re genuinely improving over time,” Sharma elaborates
“That same data is what lets us flag talent, too. And a lot of the processing happens on-device rather than only on a server, so a 30 minute session comes back in a couple of minutes. That turnaround is the whole point that anyone can use to go through the nuances of the game the same evening, while the session is still fresh in their minds,” adds Sharma.
‘Technology is the fastest way to make a player understand the most minute details about their game’
Speaking of Deep Dasgupta’s input while building the app, Sharma says: “Every feature we’ve built, we’ve run past him with one question: Will this feature add value to improving cricket as a game for aspiring cricketers or even others supporting a player like coaches, academies or a parent who wants the best for their child?”
“When I look back at my own playing career with the Indian team, I often wonder how different things might have been if a tool like Advanced Impactor had existed then,” Dasgupta says.
“I vividly remember a phase during which I kept getting dismissed in a particular manner. Despite countless hours of practice. It was only in 2005, when video analysis became available, that I finally saw the issue for myself it was simply the angle of my bat.
“One look at the footage made the problem immediately obvious. Had I possessed a tool that could gather data from every dismissal the insights would have been invaluable in helping me identify patterns and improve much earlier.
“Hence, I am a believer that use of technology is essential as it is the fastest way to make a player understand the most minute details about their game.”
“Coaching has two parts — an art and a science. The science is measurable: angles, timing, positions, data,” says Dasgupta.
“The art is everything else — knowing what a player needs to hear, and when. No technology should touch that part, and it isn’t built to.
“What we’re doing here with Advanced Impactor is strengthening the science behind the sport, so the art — whoever is providing it, a coach, a parent, an academy has better material to work with.
“Resistance to technology usually comes down to two things — the fear that it replaces the human side of coaching, and simple discomfort with technology itself.”
“Therefore, we’ve built something that only ever assists — a coach, a player working on his own, a parent trying to help from the boundary. Another real advantage is speed — how quickly it captures data and gets feedback back to whoever’s using it.
“That real-time element matters because it keeps the instinct in the room sharp instead of arriving after the moment’s already gone cold,” Dasgupta says.
Dasgupta believes AI could give talent identification “a second layer to the eye test.”
“Most experienced scouts trust their instinct, and that isn’t going anywhere. But hard data gives that instinct something to lean on. This is where what we call the impact scorecard helps — video sitting alongside the metrics.
“Looking for a fast bowler, it shows his pace, whether he’s touching 145km/ph. Want someone who swings the ball away, it shows the actual deshows whether the player can hit the same area ball after ball
“For a batter, it’s whether he can find the boundary consistently, not just occasionally. The real differentiator is that a lot of this comes straight off the bat and ball — data that hasn’t been widely available at the level where most young talent actually plays. It doesn’t replace a scout’s judgement; it simply gives him more evidence to back it up,” Dasgupta adds.
The idea of the platform is the elimination of sophisticated equipment to analyse a training session.
“That is one of the biggest strengths of our platform, that it runs off a basic phone connection, not a fixed camera rig at a stadium. Open the application, follow the markers, tap to record, and it guides you on where to place the phone you don’t need anyone else there.
“Capture a full net session, upload it whenever you’re on wi-fi, even hours later, and it breaks the footage into ball-by-ball segments — speed, line and length, de
“In addition to this, our application users can also upload video that are not recorded using Advanced Impactor platform to get a detailed analysis of the session recorded,” Sharma explains.
And this has made affordability a major factor especially for grassroots players.
“Affordability was the whole starting point for us. Even in other sports, top-tier ball-tracking systems reportedly cost several thousand euros per matchday to run.
“We stripped away the need for a multi-camera rig entirely the entire capture happens through a phone camera, and the processing that would normally need heavy server infrastructure is split between the device and the cloud to keep costs down.
“That’s what assist us to price this technology for an individual player, a local academy, or a state association, not just a national board with a broadcast budget. Grassroots players were never an afterthought for us it was the target market from day one.” Sharma adds.
“The footage and the performance data belong to the player or the parent if it’s a minor. We don’t sell it and we don’t hand it to third parties, only to the infrastructure providers who host the app under contract.”
‘What technology can do is shorten the learning curve’
With cricket set to return to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028, the game will see new markets and that is how data-driven coaching will become important for emerging cricket nations.
“It’ll become important because the game is going to spread much faster than coaching expertise can,” believes Dasgupta.
“Countries where cricket is still developing won’t immediately have hundreds of experienced coaches, specialist trainers or high-performance centres. What technology can do is shorten that learning curve.
“If a platform can objectively show a player what’s happening and track whether he’s improving, that’s useful irrespective of where he’s plays.
“Will it produce international cricketers on its own? No. Players still need good coaching, good practice and match experience. But if technology can help emerging cricket nations develop players a little quicker and make coaching more informed, then it has done its job,” says Dasgupta.
“At the end of the day, cricket will always be played by people and coached by people. Technology just helps both become a little better.”
Source: www.rediff.com
