Cricket has always held a strange tension between the individual and the team. By design, it demands periods of isolation and mental stamina rarely found in team sports, and so focus tilts towards the solo performance. Yet without the needs of the team, that performance is devoid of meaning.

It’s a tenuous relationship that carries through to training. Bowling practice is more finely tuned with a batter down the other end; batting practice necessitates a bowler or thrower. As surely as the sport veers towards individualism, it just as inevitably arcs back around to the communal. Skill improvement is seldom a solo undertaking.

That is, until now. HiTZ Cricket, a cricket training simulator that launched this month at Melbourne’s CitiPower Centre, after first being offered in the UK, seeks to bridge this gap. Situated within existing bowling nets and entirely autonomous, it allows batters to hone their craft on their own terms.

What sets HiTZ apart from the humble bowling machine is its sheer programmability. A control panel allows the user to set a speed range (from 72kmh up to 128kmh), select between pace or spin, and program the degree of swing, line, and seam variations. The system also makes adjustments based on the user’s gender, age and handedness to further tailor the experience.

Will Wedgwood, who manages the technology for BatFast, who supply the technology for HiTZ Cricket, explains that this allows for “over one million different variations”. For those who consider their local cricket nets a second home, this number is nothing short of revolutionary.

Say you wanted to work on your cut shot. In most traditional net set-ups, this would involve futzing about with a bowling machine to set the correct length and speed, and then playing that same shot over and over. With HiTZ technology, that repetition is certainly still possible; however, with variations programmed in, the perfect delivery for a cut shot might only come after five balls. The user is forced to actively think through shot selection as they would in a game setting. It’s Bradman with the stump and the tank, but with 2026 technology.

“A lot of players don’t have the correct trigger movements towards the end of a bowling machine session, because they know where the ball’s coming,” Wedgwood says. “They’ll often play the shot early. Every ball now [with HiTZ], they’re having to think about what shot they’re playing. They have to watch the ball.”

There is one plight in particular that this technology hopes to ease: that of the undeclared cricketer. It is a harrowing experience, returning to the nets after a long break. For some, being in a team environment can soften the blow, the sharp edges of self-consciousness smoothed over by the familiarity of cricket chat.

For others, such as myself, the prospect is mortifying. After a couple of years without picking up a bat, I found the idea of stepping into these nets daunting. Yet once I’d faced a few slower balls, I felt that old part of my brain reactivating – before, naturally, getting bamboozled by the next variation. Fresh-airing a couple more deliveries began to kickstart my competitive streak, and I could suddenly picture myself losing hours to this, stubbornly trying to master the ball movement and rebuilding confidence almost by accident.

Ronan Cotter, a local cricketer who is trialling the technology after not having “had a net properly in about eight years”, also gave a glowing review.

“It was a very positive experience,” he says. “Probably took a couple of balls to get used to it, but once I got used to it and understood how it works, it was really great.”

Adding to the gamification is the capacity to set a field and adjust fielding ability, with the system keeping track of run totals, informing the user of a catch or fumble, and allowing a moment to raise the bat at milestones. And if you’re the numbers sort, as cricketers so often are, you’re in luck: the statistics of every ball faced, along with video replays, are collected on your profile. It’s a cricket nuffy’s dream.

“I think the thing I enjoyed the most was getting feedback on the different shots after you played them,” Cotter says. “To get the live feedback straight away on the monitor, I was able to make those corrections really quickly.”

It’s a surprisingly affordable offering. One HiTZ lane can be booked for $55 an hour in off-peak periods, and $75 during peak. By comparison, booking a traditional lane at the centre also costs $75 an hour, plus bowling machine and speed gun hire.

The potential ushered in by such accessibility is tantalising. Think of social players, where net sessions do not present enough skilled bowling to allow significant improvement on batting. The more elite batters, who only faced net bowlers towards the end of their spell. Women entering the game for the first time, without years of reps under their belts.

In HiTZ, as in cricket at large, all individual roads lead back to the team. Liam Murphy, the general manager of premier and community cricket for Cricket Victoria, puts it succinctly.

“You can just go and have a hit,” he says. “You can feel comfortable, and then actually go to a club and not feel like you’re out of your depth. Which is a pretty powerful thing.”