What is Pickleball? How is it played? What are its rules? How many teams play the sport in India? All you need to know

Started as a recreational sport, Pickleball has taken up pace and is one of the fastest growing sports in India. A paddle sport, that is a mixture of tennis, badminton and table tennis, a lot of people are choosing pickleball over other Olympic sports in the country.

Based on several reports, the originated back in 1965 by three individuals named Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum. Little did they knew that the game would evolve from a backyard pastime into a professional sport with its own governing body.

In India, pickleball made its entry in 2006 by Sunil Valavalkar, whose first interaction with the game came in 1999 in Canada. Valavalkar formed the All India Pickleball Association (AIPA) in 2008 and was affiliated to the International Pickleball Federation in 2015.

How Pickleball is played?

Pickleball is played on a court which has the same size as that of a doubles badminton court (20 ft by 44 ft). It consists of a low net, slightly lower in height than that of tennis and can be played in singles and doubles format. Doubles is the most common format in pickleball.

Pickleball is played with smooth-faced paddles to hit a lightweight, perforated hollow plastic ball over the net.

What are the rules of Pickleball?

• Serve: Unlike in badminton, tennis and table tennis, a serve in pickleball must be underhand and the paddle contact with the ball should be below the server's waist. The serve, hit diagonally across the court, should land in the opponent's service court. It must be noted that the server must stand behind the baseline and only one serve attempt is allowed.
• Two-Bounce Rule: This is one of the most important rule in pickleball and is designed to present "serve and volley" advantage. First Bounce: After the ball is served, the receiving team must let the ball bounce before returning it. Second Bounce: In this case the serving team must let the return shot bounce before hitting it. After the first two bounces, the teams are allowed to hit the ball either as a volley or a groundstroke.
• Non-Volley Zone: Also knock as 'The Kitchen', the Non-Volley Zone (NVZ) is the 7-feet area from the net on both the sides. Inside the NVZ, volleying is strictly prohibited. A player can't even volley while also standing on any of the NVZ lines. Even if a player enters The Kitchen while on momentum after volleying the ball, a fault will be counted. One can enter the Kitchen only to hit the ball that has already bounced.
• Scoring: The scoring system in Pickleball is kind of similar to that of tennis, badminton and table tennis when a fault by Team A results in points being scored by Team B. Interestingly, the serving team can only score points. Each game is played to 11 points and must be won by a margin of two points.

List of Pickleball teams in India

Pickleball got its prominence in India through the inaugural Indian Pickleball League (IPBL) in 2025, consisting six franchises. The six IPBL franchises are Mumbai Smashers, Chennai Super Warriors, Lucknow Leopards, Bengaluru Blasters, Hyderabad Royals and Capital Warriors Gurgaon.