What Racket Does Lakshya Sen Play? A Look at His Yonex Nanoflare 1000Z

Published: August 2026 | Category: Player Gear | Read time: 7 min

Ask anyone who's walked into our Coimbatore store in the last few weeks and they'll tell you the conversation always ends up here: "So what racket does Lakshya actually use?" With the BWF World Championships happening in New Delhi this month — the biggest individual badminton event India has hosted in over 15 years — it's not a surprising question. Every time an Indian player does well on home soil, the same racket gets sold out within days at shops across the country.

So here's the actual answer, without the marketing gloss.

The racket: Yonex Nanoflare 1000Z

Lakshya plays the Nanoflare 1000Z in the Lightning Yellow colourway, strung with Yonex BG80 Power at roughly 26–28 lbs. That's the setup, and it tells you a lot about how he actually plays if you know what to look for.

The Nanoflare series exists because Yonex wanted a racket built around swing speed rather than raw smash power — that's the Astrox line's job. Where Astrox rackets are shaft-flex heavy, designed to load energy and release it on a big overhead hit, the Nanoflare frame is head-light, meaning more of the weight sits toward the grip end. Less weight at the tip means the racket head can be whipped through the air faster with less effort from the arm and shoulder. You see this most in Lakshya's game during fast net exchanges and flat mid-court drives, where he's able to change the angle of a shot late, almost at the last possible moment before contact.

The frame itself uses Yonex's Aero-Compact shape — narrower than a standard oval — which cuts down on air resistance as the racket moves. Combine that with an extra-stiff shaft, and you get a racket that transmits power almost instantly rather than storing and releasing it. It's a demanding setup. If your own swing speed isn't already fast, an extra-stiff, head-light frame like this can actually work against you rather than for you, because it doesn't do much to generate power on its own — it just gets out of the way of a fast swing.

Why the string tension matters more than people think

26–28 lbs is genuinely high. For context, most club and intermediate players in India are strung somewhere between 20–24 lbs, and honestly, a fair number of players who ask us to string higher than that are doing it because they think higher tension automatically means more power. It doesn't work that way. Higher tension gives you a flatter, more predictable trajectory and better control on tight net shots — but it reduces the trampoline effect off the strings, so you need to generate your own power through technique rather than relying on the racket to do it for you. That's exactly the trade-off a player at Lakshya's level is making. It's not a beginner setup, and honestly it's not meant to be.

The shoes: Power Cushion 65 Z4

On court he wears the Yonex Power Cushion 65 Z4. It's built around Yonex's cushioning technology at the heel, meant to absorb repeated landing impact from jump-smashes — relevant for a player whose game involves a lot of explosive movement between the net and the back court, over and over across a best-of-three match.

Should you actually buy this racket?

We'd be lying if we said yes to everyone who asks. If your swing is already fast and you're playing regularly at a competitive club or district level, the 1000Z rewards that speed. If you're still building up your game, an extra-stiff, head-light racket at this tension is often more frustrating than helpful — you'll find yourself under-hitting clears and struggling to generate pace on the smash.

If you like everything about how the Nanoflare series feels but want something more forgiving while you build up your swing speed, look at the Nanoflare 1000 Play or Nanoflare 1000 Game. Same series DNA — head-light balance, aero frame shape — but a more flexible shaft that's easier to generate power with at a lower swing speed. A lot of our customers who come in asking specifically for "the Lakshya Sen racket" end up walking out with one of these instead, once we talk through how they actually play.

Come in and we'll actually hit a few shuttles with you before you decide, rather than just ring up whatever's trending.