Best Badminton Racket Under 1000 in India 2026

The quick answer

The TANSO Arashi 2.0 wins this band for a boring reason: it is the only racket under a thousand rupees whose owners are not complaining about the frame. It is a genuine full-carbon 77 g frame, it arrives strung with something you can actually play on, and you choose head-heavy or balanced at checkout. The catch is its price, which sits exactly on Rs1,000 and has been above it. If you smash and want a frame built for it, the Exergy 101 is the pick at the same money; if you are a complete beginner and would rather spend Rs589, the Yonex ZR 100L is the safe learner’s racket.

Quick comparison

Five rackets under Rs1,000 side by side, ranked by score - what the frame and shaft are actually made of, the weight, whether it is worth playing on out of the box, and the game each one suits.

• 9.0 score
  Best overall

  TANSO Arashi 2.0 Full Graphite Strung Badminton Racket

  The only real carbon frame that lands under a thousand rupees, and the one owners are happiest with by a distance.

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  approx. ₹999

  Buy on Amazon
• 8.6 score
  Best for attacking play

  Exergy 101 Strung Badminton Racket

  The smasher's frame in this band - 82 g of graphite with real durability accounts behind it, sold with a string you will want to replace.

  Read the review
  approx. ₹999

  Buy on Amazon
• 8.3 score
  Best for beginners

  Yonex ZR 100L Aluminium Strung Badminton Racquet

  The safe first racket - a genuine Made-in-India Yonex at Rs589, light enough to learn on and cheap enough to replace.

  Read the review
  approx. ₹589

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• 8.0 score
  Best for durability

  Yonex GR 303i Aluminium Strung Badminton Racquet

  The racket owners are still using years later - heavier and blunter than the ZR 100L, but nothing here lasts like it.

  Read the review
  approx. ₹629

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• 7.7 score
  Best pair for casual play

  Konex Lightweight Aluminium Badminton Racquet (Pack of 2)

  Two strung rackets and a bag for Rs649 - fine for the terrace and the park, and honest about being nothing more.

  Read the review
  approx. ₹649

  Buy on Amazon

How we shortlisted

“Best badminton racket under 1000” is a search where Amazon’s own ranking works against you. The top results are dominated by cheap graphite frames from Hundred and Li-Ning, and those are precisely the rackets whose recent verified reviews are dominated by the words “broke in twelve days”. Strip out the shuttlecocks, grip tapes, kids’ steel toys and the tennis rackets wearing the wrong keyword, and the field that remains splits cleanly into three: two genuinely good graphite frames sitting exactly on the Rs1,000 line, two honest Yonex aluminium beginners at Rs589 and Rs629, and a large swamp.

The number that misleads most here is not the tension or the weight - it is the word graphite in the title. Under a thousand rupees, several rackets are sold as graphite while their own spec table says the frame is aluminium or duralumin and only the shaft is graphite. The Hundred Powertek Graphite is a duralumin frame; the Powertek 2000 Pro’s spec table lists Frame Material as Aluminium under a title that says Graphite. One owner of the former summed it up in four words: only the shaft is graphite. Cross-check the spec table against the title before you believe anything, and be equally suspicious of the star average when a listing’s five-star reviews all carry the same marketing-shaped headings.

The failure mode that actually ranked this list is frame life. Not string quality, which is universally poor down here and is a Rs300 problem you fix in the first month; not balance, which is a matter of preference. Every product we dropped has a review pool where the loudest recurring line is a frame snapping in days or weeks - the Hundred Power Storm, Powertek Graphite and Powertek 2000 Pro each carry double-digit one-star reviews in a fifty-review recent sample, all saying versions of the same thing. So the five that survived cover five real decisions rather than five price points: the best carbon frame (Arashi 2.0), the frame for someone who smashes (Exergy 101), the genuine learner’s racket (ZR 100L), the one owners still have years later (GR 303i), and an honest pair for the park (Konex). If your ceiling is closer to two thousand than one, the best badminton rackets under Rs2,000 is a materially better band to shop in and the picks barely overlap.

At a glance: 5 rackets under Rs1,000, what each one is best for

The 5 picks, reviewed

1. TANSO Arashi 2.0 - best badminton racket under 1000

The Arashi 2.0 wins this band on the one thing everything else here fails at: the frame holds up. In fifty recent verified reviews the negatives amount to a handful, and the positives are specific in a way that budget-racket reviews rarely are - owners talking about swing speed, sweet spot size and how it feels against the Hundred and Yonex frames they came from, rather than about how fast the delivery was. One owner who plays aggressively rates it past five months. Another, reviewing at seven to eight months, is still using it on a Yonex BG65 re-string and says he has thrown it in frustration more than once without damaging it.

The construction backs that up. It is a full high-modulus carbon frame and shaft at 77 g with a 7 mm slim shaft, which is genuinely unusual under a thousand rupees, and it arrives pre-strung with a multifilament worth keeping for the first few weeks rather than the throwaway gut most rivals ship. The detail nobody else in this band offers is the balance choice at checkout: the same frame in head-heavy for an attacking player or balanced at 295 mm for a control player. Choose balanced unless you already smash cleanly, because a couple of owners find the head-heavy version shakes at the handle on hard contact.

Two honest caveats. The first is the price, and it is the reason this racket needs a warning label rather than a discount: it sits exactly on the Rs1,000 line, and owners in these very reviews quote paying Rs1,100, Rs1,150 and Rs1,300. It is under the ceiling as we write; it may not be when you look. The second is the tension. The frame prints 32 lb, and one owner’s stringer refused to take it past 24, told him it was a child’s racket, and left him doubting the stated weight, tension and balance figures altogether. Keep it at 22 to 24 lb, ignore the number on the throat, and the frame is the most reliable thing in this price band.

2. Exergy 101 - best under 1000 for smashing

If your game is built on hitting down, the Exergy 101 is the frame to buy here. At 82 g with a balance point at 300 mm it carries enough weight in the head to load a smash without turning into the sort of head-heavy club that tires a recreational arm, and the smash reports from its owners are the most credible in this review - not because they are enthusiastic but because they are specific. One owner running Hundred JP70 strings at 24 by 25 lb with a Yonex overgrip describes the combination as a weapon. Another, nine months in, is still recommending it and volunteering his tension. That is what a real durability account looks like, and it is the sort of thing you almost never read on a Rs999 racket.

It is also an Indian brand making the racket in India, which quietly removes the biggest headache in this price band: you are not checking a hologram, and nobody is faking an Exergy. One owner has bought ten of them and reports all of them performing, which is either a school coach or a very committed society captain, and either way it is useful evidence.

What you have to accept is that the string it ships with is packaging. Owners report the tension dropping within two or three days and the string breaking anywhere from a week to a month in. The frame underneath is fine - the same owners re-string with Yonex BG65 at 24 lb and carry on - but budget for that in the first month and stop believing the 28 lb printed on the frame, which its own owners put at 22 to 24 in practice, with one warning that the frame can collapse above it. One detailed reviewer goes further and says never to play doubles with it at all: he treats it as a singles frame, and having read what happens to these frames in a clash, that is not an unreasonable position.

3. Yonex ZR 100L - best Yonex badminton racket under 1000

The ZR 100L answers a narrower question than the two above it: what is the cheapest racket actually worth buying if you have never played properly before? At Rs589 it is a genuine Made-in-India Yonex rather than an anonymous aluminium frame off a general-goods shelf, it has an isometric head with a 40 sq in face so the sweet spot forgives a beginner’s contact, and it comes strung with a full cover so a first-timer or a child can play the day it lands. It carries by far the deepest body of owner experience in this band, and the verdict barely wavers: light, easy to swing, right for a learner. Owners who have both this and the GR 303i consistently say this is the lighter, smoother one.

Set expectations correctly and it is hard to fault. It is aluminium, not carbon, and owners rate it as light and easy rather than powerful - it is not a racket you smash with, and at least one owner had it break outright in ordinary play. That is what Rs589 buys, and there is no dishonesty in it.

What you should genuinely worry about is what arrives. Bent frames are the single loudest complaint on this listing, and the reason is in the reviews too: one owner describes it arriving in a paper bag rather than a cardboard box and asks, reasonably, whether that is how you ship something delicate. Others report covers arriving torn, strings already slack, and units that looked used. And one owner found “Low Torsion Steel Shaft” printed on the shaft of a racket sold to him as aluminium, which he flagged as a misrepresentation on the grounds that steel corrodes. None of that is a verdict on the frame, but it does mean you check this one against a straight edge the day it arrives and raise a return immediately if it is off.

4. Yonex GR 303i - the longest-lasting racket under 1000

Every other racket on this page is judged partly on how long we think it will survive. The GR 303i is the only one where owners have already told us. One is three years in and still calls it value for money. One handed it down to a child in class six and is nine years on with everything still working. A third says he has not broken a single string in over a year, which in this band is an extraordinary sentence. Three months in, owners describe it as still like new. If what you want from Rs629 is a racket that is simply still there next season, this is the one.

The trade-off is that it is duller to play with. It is heavier in the hand than the ZR 100L - owners who have both say so, and one finds its control not up to the mark by comparison - and it is a jointed frame, which one owner sums up unsparingly: the power does not translate through it. Hard hitters have found the limit, with two separate owners describing it breaking at the handle at the same spot. This is a racket for the society game, the school kit bag and the one you lend to whoever turns up, not for someone building an attacking game.

Two smaller irritations worth knowing. The supplied cover is the weakest part of the package by a distance - a striking number of owners received it torn at the bottom, with a broken zip, or with a hole in it, and several rated the racket four stars purely because of the bag. And the listing contradicts itself on origin: the title says Made in India while its own spec table says China. Neither changes how the racket plays, but both are the kind of thing worth knowing before you order rather than after.

5. Konex (pack of 2) - best pair of badminton rackets under 1000

Most people searching this keyword want one racket. A meaningful minority want two, because the actual plan is a terrace, a park or a society compound and a second person. For that, the Konex pair is the sanest thing under a thousand rupees: two strung aluminium rackets at 90 g apiece plus a shared cover bag for Rs649, which is roughly what a single racket costs at the top of this band. Owners describe playing a full hour without the wrist getting sore, which the heavier pair sets down here do not manage, and one reports hitting the ground with it - the realistic hazard in park badminton - without bending or breaking the frame.

We scored it more cautiously than its star average suggests, and the reason is worth stating plainly: a large run of its five-star reviews read templated, with near-identical marketing-shaped headings and prose that could describe any racket. So the score here comes from the detailed reviews on both sides rather than the average, and those are more mixed - one owner had the frame’s net-side structure give way after two or three matches, another had the grip foam strip in two days.

The single most useful line in its reviews is also the most honest one about what this is: fine for gully badminton, do not expect court performance. That is exactly right. The strings are spaced openly enough that one owner had a plastic shuttle jam in the bed mid-rally, which tells you all you need about how it will behave on a real court with real shuttles. Buy it as recreation equipment for two people and it does its job well. Buy it expecting a racket you improve on and you will be back here in a month reading about the Arashi.

The features explained, in plain English

Four terms decide almost everything under a thousand rupees, and three of them are routinely misused on the listings.

Frame material versus shaft material. These are two different things, and budget listings blur them deliberately. A racket described as “graphite” in the title may have a graphite shaft bonded to an aluminium or duralumin frame, which plays and fails like an aluminium racket. The spec table usually tells the truth even when the title does not: the Hundred Powertek Graphite lists its frame as duralumin, and the Powertek 2000 Pro lists Frame Material as Aluminium beneath a title that says Graphite. A genuinely full-carbon racket - the TANSO Arashi 2.0 and the Exergy 101 here - says graphite in both fields. It matters because a full carbon frame is lighter for the same stiffness and transmits less shock to the elbow.

Balance - head-heavy, head-light or even. This is where the mass sits, measured in millimetres from the handle end, and it decides how the racket plays more than the brand does. A head-heavy frame around 300 mm or above loads momentum into a smash and rewards attacking singles; a head-light frame is quicker through the air and far easier to defend and play doubles with. The Exergy 101’s 300 mm balance is why it smashes better than anything else here, and the Arashi 2.0’s balanced 295 mm option is why it suits a wider range of players. Most recreational players smash less than they imagine and defend more, so if you are unsure, even or head-light is the safer choice.

Weight class - U, 3U, 4U, 5U. The numbering is backwards from what you would expect: a higher number means a lighter racket. 3U is roughly 85-89 g, 4U about 80-84 g, 5U around 75-79 g, and the bare “U” frames are heavier again. Lighter is quicker to swing and kinder to a developing wrist; heavier is more stable and carries more power but tires you and slows your reactions. The two graphite picks here sit at 77 g and 82 g, which is the right zone for a recreational player. The Yonex aluminium frames are heavier, which is one reason they suit learning rather than playing.

String tension, and why the printed maximum is a trap. The number stamped on the throat is the most the frame can briefly survive, not a target. Higher tension gives a flatter, more controlled response and a smaller sweet spot, and puts far more stress on the frame; lower tension gives more power and forgiveness. Under Rs1,000 the sensible range is 22 to 24 lb, and the frames themselves confirm it: the Exergy 101 prints 28 lb while its owners put the ceiling at 24, and the Arashi 2.0 prints 32 lb while a stringer refused to take one past 24. Stringing to the printed maximum is the most common way people break a racket they otherwise looked after.

Complete buying guide

How much should you actually spend on a badminton racket?

Under a thousand rupees the money divides into three fairly distinct tiers, and each buys something specific:

• Rs250 to Rs450 - avoid. Anonymous aluminium and steel singles, two-racket kits and kids’ toy sets. Frames bend on contact, strings are unusable, and several popular listings here have owners reporting rust. There is no version of this tier that is a better buy than the Rs589 Yonex.
• Rs550 to Rs700 - the honest starter tier. A genuine Yonex aluminium racket (ZR 100L at Rs589, GR 303i at Rs629), or a decent pair for recreation (Konex at Rs649). Real brands, real strings, forgiving heads, and cheap enough to treat as semi-disposable.
• Rs850 to Rs999 - the only tier worth playing seriously on. This is where full graphite starts, and the jump in feel is larger than the Rs300 gap suggests. The TANSO Arashi 2.0 and the Exergy 101 both live here. Note that the middle of this tier - the Rs800 to Rs900 “graphite” rackets from the big budget brands - is where the breakage reports concentrate, so this tier rewards picking carefully rather than just spending more.

The uncomfortable truth about the band is that its two best rackets sit exactly on its ceiling, and both have traded above it. If your budget is genuinely rigid at Rs1,000 and neither is under it on the day you look, the Rs589 Yonex is a better decision than a Rs950 frame with a poor review record. And if you can stretch, the best badminton rackets under Rs2,000 is a step change rather than an incremental one - that band buys proven carbon frames with years of owner history behind them.

Graphite, aluminium or steel: what Rs1,000 actually buys

Steel appears only in the cheapest kids’ sets and in the odd surprise, like the ZR 100L owner who found “Low Torsion Steel Shaft” printed on a racket sold as aluminium. It is heavy, it corrodes, and it has no place in an adult racket. Aluminium is the honest budget material: heavier and blunter, but it bends before it snaps, which is why a bent aluminium racket is a common complaint and a shattered one is not. Graphite is lighter for the same stiffness and much kinder to the elbow, but it fails differently - when a cheap graphite frame goes, it cracks, usually at the handle or the T-joint, and usually without warning. That is precisely the failure pattern that fills the reviews of the rejected rackets in this band. The lesson is not “avoid graphite under Rs1,000” - the two best picks here are graphite - but “avoid graphite from a listing whose reviews are full of two-week failures.”

Buying genuine, and reading a review pool honestly

Counterfeit Yonex is the standing hazard in badminton, though it bites less at this end than higher up simply because there is no margin in faking a Rs589 racket. Yonex’s own advice on it is plain: buy from a reliable authorised retailer, and check the hologram, which on a genuine racket resists a fingernail rather than peeling. Their counterfeit guidance is worth two minutes before you order anything with the logo on it.

The subtler trap under a thousand rupees is the review pool itself. Two patterns recur. The first is templated five-star reviews - a run of near-identical write-ups with headings like “Great Value and Solid Performance” and prose that could describe any racket, which is why we weighted the Konex set on its detailed reviews rather than its average. The second is the opposite problem: pools where the one-star reviews are all about delivery, which is a logistics complaint rather than a verdict on the racket, and which we deliberately did not score against any product here. When you read a listing yourself, skip the five-stars entirely and read the three- and four-star reviews - that is where owners tell you what they had to fix.

What we don’t recommend (and why)

The clearest rejections here are Hundred’s sub-Rs1,000 graphite line - the Powertek Graphite at around Rs849, the Powertek 2000 Pro at around Rs990 and the Power Storm at around Rs799. All three look excellent on paper and all three are among the first results Amazon shows for this keyword, and all three have review pools dominated by frames failing fast: owners reporting breakage at three days, twelve days, thirteen days, two months, one describing buying the same model twice with the online unit lasting twelve days against six months for the offline one. Each carries double-digit one-star reviews in a fifty-review recent sample. Two of the three also sell a duralumin or aluminium frame under a “Graphite” title. There is a usable racket in there for someone who strings very low and plays gently, but not at a rate that belongs on a best list.

We also passed on the Li-Ning XP-IV at Rs469 and XP-70-IV at Rs959 - owners report heads bending after a couple of matches and strings gone in seven to ten days, and neither does anything the Rs589 Yonex does not do better. The Boldfit combo at Rs649 is shorter than a standard racket without the listing saying so anywhere, which several owners discovered on arrival. And the Jaspo Kidzy steel set at Rs360 is the clearest avoid of the lot: an 18-inch steel toy whose owners report rust inside the frame and rackets failing on the first shot.

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

Under a thousand rupees there is no racket without a real compromise, so the question is which compromise you can live with. For most people the answer is the TANSO Arashi 2.0 at around Rs999 - the only genuine full-carbon frame in the band, the only one whose owners are not reporting breakages, and the one to buy if it is still under the ceiling when you look. If you smash, the Exergy 101 is the better frame for exactly that at the same money, provided you re-string it in the first month and keep it at 24 lb. If you have never played properly, spend Rs589 on the Yonex ZR 100L and upgrade when you know you will keep playing; if you want the racket that will simply still be working in three years, the GR 303i has the owner accounts to prove it. And if the actual plan is two people on a terrace, the Konex pair at Rs649 is honest about being exactly that. We will refresh this review after the next festival sale, when prices in this band move enough to change the ranking.