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A pickleball bat, racket, and paddle all refer to the same piece of equipment - the solid, paddle-shaped tool used to hit the ball. “Paddle” is the official term used worldwide, while “racket” and “bat” are regional terms commonly used by Indian players instead. There is no actual equipment difference between them -just different words for the same product.

If you’ve been searching “pickleball racket price in India” and then stumbled onto a site selling “pickleball paddles” and wondered if you’re on the wrong page, you’re not. Here’s the full breakdown.

Why do people call it a Bat, Racket and Paddle? 

The official term recognized by USA Pickleball and the International Federation of Pickleball is “paddle,” since the sport originated in the United States in the 1960s. In India, where pickleball is a newer addition to the racket-sports scene, players often default to “racket” (borrowed from tennis and badminton) or “bat” (borrowed from table tennis). All three words point to the exact same piece of equipment - the terminology difference is purely about which existing sports vocabulary a given region borrowed from when the sport arrived, not about any variation in the product itself.

Is it wrong to call it a racket?

No. It’s regional usage, not an error. Retailers, players, and even sports commentators in India use “racket” interchangeably with “paddle,” and both terms will get you to the right product when shopping online.

Why does India specifically use different terms than the rest of the world?

India’s racket-sports culture existed for decades before pickleball arrived, and that vocabulary shaped how the new sport was discussed. Tennis, badminton, and squash, all strung, string-based sports, have used "racket" as the default term across Indian sports media, retail, and everyday conversation for generations. Table tennis, similarly well-established, uses "bat." When pickleball began appearing in India roughly in the early 2020s, it landed in a linguistic environment where "racket" and "bat" were already the natural, familiar words for "the thing you hit a ball with," while "paddle," the term used in the sport's home market, the US, had no prior foothold in Indian sporting vocabulary.

This is a fairly common pattern with imported sports terminology: local vocabulary tends to route new, unfamiliar equipment names to the term already in use for a similar object, rather than adopting the imported term wholesale. It's part of why search data consistently shows Indian shoppers searching for "pickleball racket" several times more often than "pickleball paddle," even though "paddle" remains the technically official and most commonly used term in the sport's founding market and in most international rulebooks.

Is a pickleball paddle the same as a pickleball racket? 

Yes - 100% the same product. There is no separate category of equipment called a “pickleball racket” that differs technically from a paddle. The confusion is purely linguistic, and it’s worth being explicit about this because a small number of new players genuinely worry they might be buying the wrong thing when a site’s terminology doesn’t match what they searched for.

Quick facts:

Same shape, same official specifications, same rules apply regardless of what you call it.

No brand or manufacturer makes a distinct “racket” version versus a “paddle” version.

Indian shoppers search “racket” more often than “paddle” - but both return identical products on most retail sites.

International product listings, reviews, and spec sheets almost universally use “paddle,” so if you’re comparing an Indian retailer’s listing against a global review or spec comparison, you’re still looking at the same category of product despite the different label.

What’s the difference between a pickleball paddle and a tennis or badminton racket? 

Unlike a tennis or badminton racket, a pickleball paddle has no strings. It’s a solid-faced paddle - flat, rigid, and typically made from a fibreglass, carbon fibre, or graphite face over a polymer or Nomex core. A tennis or badminton racket, by contrast, uses a strung head to generate power and spin.

This matters practically: the hitting mechanics are different (a paddle relies on the paddle face’s surface texture for spin, not string tension), and the two are not interchangeable equipment. A strung racket flexes and rebounds the ball through tension across the string bed, which is part of why tennis and badminton rackets need regular restringing as tension loosens with use. A solid pickleball paddle has no strings to maintain - its performance instead depends on the face material’s texture and the core’s density, which is why paddle “wear” looks completely different from racket wear, as covered in our guide to how long a pickleball paddle lasts.

The court and net dimensions also differ significantly between the sports, which compounds the equipment difference - pickleball is played on a smaller court with a lower net than tennis, and doubles badminton court dimensions, closer to what pickleball actually uses, still don’t share the same net height or ball type. Even the way each sport’s equipment is regulated differs: strung rackets have their own governing specifications around string tension and pattern, while pickleball paddle regulations focus on surface roughness, thickness, and overall dimensions, since there’s no string bed to regulate at all. Shop the CTRL Infinity Pro. 

Can I use a badminton or tennis racket to play pickleball?

No. Official pickleball rules require a solid-faced paddle. A strung racket isn’t legal equipment in sanctioned play, and it won’t perform the same way even in casual games, since a strung head would produce very different, less controllable contact with pickleball’s harder plastic ball than it does with a felt tennis ball or a feathered or synthetic shuttlecock.

What’s the difference between a pickleball paddle and a table tennis bat? 

A pickleball paddle and a table tennis bat share the same basic idea - a solid hitting surface with no strings - but differ meaningfully in size and construction:

Size: A pickleball paddle is roughly 15.5-17 inches long; a table tennis bat is closer to 10 inches, including the handle

Core material: Pickleball paddles use a polymer, Nomex, or aluminium core sandwiched between face layers; table tennis bats use a wooden blade covered in rubber

Grip: Pickleball paddles have a longer handle designed for a two-handed backhand option; table tennis bats have a short handle built for close-net, wrist-driven play

Playing surface: Table tennis is played on a small, elevated table with a net just a few inches high; pickleball is played on a full-sized court, closer in scale to a badminton doubles court, with a net roughly three feet high at the sidelines

They’re related in spirit - both emerged as smaller-scale, more accessible variations on existing racket sports, and both use a rigid, solid hitting surface rather than strings - but they’re not interchangeable. A table tennis bat isn’t legal or practical for pickleball, since its small size and lightweight wood-and-rubber construction can’t generate the power or durability that pickleball’s larger court and harder plastic ball demand. For a deeper look at what actually goes into a pickleball paddle’s construction, see our Core Materials Explained guide.

Shop the CTRL Infinity 

Does it matter which term you use at a club or with a coach?

No - coaches, club organizers, and fellow players across India will understand any of the three terms without confusion. Unlike, say, a technical rule or scoring term where precision matters, “bat,” “racket,” and “paddle” are simply regional vocabulary choices, and pickleball communities in India have generally become comfortable with all three being used interchangeably in casual conversation, coaching sessions, and even local tournament communication. New players sometimes worry unnecessarily about “sounding wrong” when picking up the sport’s vocabulary - this is one area where there’s genuinely no wrong choice.

If anything, you’ll likely hear a mix of all three terms within a single conversation at most Indian pickleball courts - a coach might refer to “paddle technique” while a fellow player asks to borrow your “racket,” and neither usage would be considered incorrect or confusing in context. The only place where consistent terminology matters more is in official rulebooks and international competition documentation, which use “paddle” as the standardised term to avoid any ambiguity across different countries’ regional preferences.

Does the terminology difference cause any real confusion when buying gear online? 

Occasionally, yes - mostly around filtering and site navigation rather than actual product selection. Some Indian e-commerce platforms and general sporting goods sites categorise products under only one term, typically “racket” or “paddle” but not consistently both, which can mean a shopper searching the “wrong” term for that specific site gets zero results even though the product exists elsewhere on the same platform under different sports-equipment categories.

Specialist pickleball retailers generally avoid this problem by optimising product listings for both terms simultaneously, but general marketplaces and multi-sport retailers sometimes don’t, since their catalogue structure was often built around older, more established sports first, and pickleball was added later without fully reconciling regional terminology preferences into the site’s search and filter logic.

If a search for one term returns nothing on a given site, it’s worth trying the other before assuming the retailer doesn’t carry pickleball equipment at all - this single troubleshooting step resolves the vast majority of “I can’t find pickleball gear on this site” confusion that new Indian buyers sometimes run into.

Which term should you search for when buying online in India? 

Use “pickleball racket” or “pickleball paddle” interchangeably when shopping online in India - both will surface the same products on most retail sites. “Bat” also works on many Indian platforms, though it’s slightly less common in product listings than the other two terms, so it’s worth trying “racket” or “paddle” first if a “bat” search returns fewer results than expected.

 Almost every serious pickleball paddle in India is imported, priced in dollars and slow on support. CTRL was built to close that gap. This is the story of India's premium pickleball brand.

Before CTRL, almost every serious pickleball paddle sold in India was imported. Designed for American indoor courts. Priced in US dollars before import duties added their margin. Backed by warranty chains that routed every query through a reseller before it reached anyone with the authority to resolve it. For recreational players that was an inconvenience. For serious players building their game on outdoor concrete courts in 35-degree heat, against wind and monsoon humidity, it was a real gap in the market.

CTRL was built to close that gap. It is India's premium pickleball paddle brand: designed with USA technology, engineered for the conditions Indian players actually face, and sold directly to them with local support and transparent pricing. This is the story of how it came to exist, told through the market that created the need, the technology, the three paddles, and the mission behind them.

What is CTRL?

CTRL is an Indian pickleball brand that builds premium, tournament-ready equipment for the country's fast-growing playing community. It designs and sells USAPA-approved paddles directly to players across India through playctrl.co, with the goal of making genuinely premium equipment something Indian players can trust for performance, durability, and local support.

The brand produces three USAPA-approved paddles, the Infinity, the Infinity Pro, and the Airbender, built around proprietary Precision Core and True Carbon Friction technology, with T700 Carbon faces on the two carbon models. Every paddle is engineered specifically for India's outdoor hard-court conditions. CTRL ships nationwide in four to five business days with brand-direct support and a 14-day return policy for unused paddles.

That is the short version. The rest of this article explains what sits behind each of those words.

Why India needed its own pickleball brand

India's pickleball growth over the past three years is one of the most striking sporting expansions in the country's recent history. According to industry reporting, active participation has jumped roughly 150%, from about 60,000 players in 2024 to more than 150,000 in 2026, while the number of dedicated courts has grown six-fold, from around 200 in early 2024 to more than 1,200 by early 2026. The Indian pickleball market is projected to reach ₹7,500 crore by 2030, and the All India Pickleball Association projects close to one million active players by 2028.

The professional layer arrived alongside the grassroots one. The World Pickleball League, India's first franchise-based professional pickleball competition, was founded in 2024 under the All India Pickleball Association and now reaches mainstream audiences through SonyLIV and Eurosport. Its franchises are owned by high-profile names, with cricketer Rishabh Pant, actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and filmmaker Atlee among the Season 2 team owners, a clear signal of how seriously Indian sport and entertainment now take the game.

All of this exposed one problem: equipment was not keeping pace with the player base. Almost every serious paddle available to Indian players was imported, designed for Western conditions, priced at Western retail, and supported through Western warranty channels. An intermediate Indian player who wanted a real performance paddle had to choose between paying an import premium for a brand that had never seen their courts, or settling for an entry-level domestic option that did not meet serious play standards. Players were outgrowing their options. CTRL was built as the alternative: an Indian brand delivering premium technology, transparent pricing, and reliable local support without the friction of imports.

Designed in the USA, built for India

Designing CTRL paddles in the USA was a deliberate decision. American pickleball has driven most of the sport's meaningful equipment innovation. T700 Carbon fibre construction, Active Honeycomb Reactive cores, edgeless aerodynamic shaping, and True Carbon Friction surfaces all emerged from the scale and competitive intensity of the US market. Designing there means accessing that technology ecosystem directly rather than adapting it secondhand.

The India-specific engineering comes on top of that foundation. CTRL paddles are built for the conditions Indian players actually face: outdoor concrete and asphalt courts that produce a faster, lower bounce than the cushioned indoor surfaces most American paddles are tuned for. Heat above 35 degrees softens polymer cores and demands consistent performance across a temperature range Western brands rarely design for. Humidity above 70% during the monsoon turns standard grip tape into a liability. Pre-monsoon winds in the north reward spin-capable surfaces that help control ball flight.

The moisture-wicking perforated grip on every CTRL paddle is not a feature lifted from a global catalogue. It is a direct response to what a two-hour outdoor session in Mumbai in July or Delhi in May does to your hands.

The direct-to-consumer model closes the loop. Buying a CTRL paddle from playctrl.co means buying from the brand, not from a reseller whose return policy may differ, whose stock may be old, and whose support may have no direct line to the people who made the paddle. The four to five-day nationwide delivery, the 14-day return window, and direct phone and email support are not just logistics. They are the brand's commitment that Indian players are not an afterthought in someone else's global distribution chain.

The technology behind CTRL paddles

Three proprietary technologies define how CTRL paddles perform.

Precision Core is the foundational core technology, a polymer honeycomb engineered to absorb impact and return energy smoothly. The result is the balance of touch and drive that serious play demands: soft shots land soft, driven shots carry pace, and response stays consistent from the centre of the face to the edges rather than dropping off near the perimeter. Precision Core is the core in the CTRL Infinity.

True Carbon Friction is the surface technology on the Infinity Pro and the Airbender. A T700 Carbon fibre face is finished to create a high-friction contact surface that grips the ball fractionally longer than fibreglass at the moment of contact, converting more swing energy into rotation. Players moving from a fibreglass face to True Carbon Friction describe the ball as suddenly gaining texture: more spin at the same swing speed, a crisper feel, and clearer feedback on where the paddle met the ball.

Active Honeycomb Reactive is the advanced core in the Infinity Pro and Airbender. It is engineered to expand the effective sweet spot and hold performance steady across the full range of shots, from soft kitchen dinks to baseline drives, so the paddle does not punish off-centre contact with unpredictable responses during fast, high-pressure exchanges.

All three paddles are USAPA-approved, which makes them legal for tournament play in India and abroad. That matters more every season as India's competitive structure grows, from the World Pickleball League down to the All India Pickleball Association's national tournaments. The comfort grip across the lineup uses moisture-wicking, perforated construction to manage sweat through long outdoor sessions, because a grip that turns slick at 80% humidity is not a grip, it is a hazard.

The three paddles

CTRL makes three paddles, each designed for a specific player and a specific stage of development.

The CTRL Infinity is the balanced foundation. At 220 grams, with a 13.3mm Precision Polymer Honeycomb core and a raw high-friction fibreglass surface, it delivers even 95/95/95 ratings across control, power, and spin, a genuine design choice to balance the paddle rather than inflate one number. It suits intermediate-to-advanced players who want a forgiving, reliable all-round paddle that rewards consistent technique. Shop the CTRL Infinity.

The CTRL Infinity Pro is the competitive upgrade. A 16mm Active Honeycomb Reactive core expands the sweet spot and adds the stability competitive players need in fast rallies, while the True Carbon Friction surface produces a crisper, higher-spin response than fibreglass. It is built for serious club and tournament players who need consistency when the game speeds up. Shop the CTRL Infinity Pro.

The CTRL Airbender is the spin and speed weapon. Its edgeless aerodynamic design drops the standard edge guard to allow faster swing speeds, the 13mm Active Honeycomb Reactive core keeps response lively and direct, and the True Carbon Friction surface reaches a 97 spin rating, the highest in the lineup. It is built for advanced players whose game runs on spin variation, aggressive shot-making, and serve dominance. Shop the CTRL Airbender.

All three are USAPA-approved, all three are sold directly from playctrl.co, and all three carry the same 14-day return policy and brand-direct support. For a full side-by-side on which one fits your game, read the best pickleball paddle under ₹10,000 guide or how to choose a pickleball paddle.

CTRL's mission: growing pickleball in India

CTRL is a product brand, but it is also part of something larger. India's pickleball ecosystem is moving from a grassroots recreational movement into a structured, professionally supported sport. The All India Pickleball Association has governed the game since 2008, became a founding member of the International Federation of Pickleball in 2015, and now spans 24 states. The World Pickleball League has added franchise competition and broadcast infrastructure. Courts have moved from improvised spaces to purpose-built facilities in clubs, schools, real-estate developments, and urban sports complexes across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai. Globally, the sport's federations are actively pursuing Olympic recognition, and with India bidding to host the 2036 Games, the domestic trajectory carries real weight.

What that transition needs, beyond courts and governance, is premium equipment that is genuinely accessible to Indian players. Not premium in the sense of expensive and imported, but premium in the sense of technically serious, locally supported, and fairly priced for the Indian market. That is the gap CTRL was built to occupy. Every paddle it sells is one more player who does not have to navigate import logistics, reseller uncertainty, or a warranty chain designed for another market, and who can simply focus on the game. India's pickleball community is building something real, and CTRL exists to equip it through better equipment, player education, and direct community support.

Ready to be part of India's pickleball movement?

Pickleball in India is growing faster than ever, and the players shaping its future deserve equipment built for the way they actually play. CTRL was created to give Indian players world-class paddle technology, direct brand support, and performance engineered for Indian courts and conditions. Whether you are playing your first social game, competing in local tournaments, or chasing the next level, there is a CTRL paddle designed to grow with you.