With the emergence of data science and artificial intelligence, cricket has become more competitive and fascinating with time. Every team, be it in the T20 leagues, domestic or international circuit, has its own data analyst whose job is to provide every possible information on cricketers and their way of playing the game, helping the teams strategize the game in a better way. But not always that information is going to work for the captain who runs the show with the inputs given by the analyst.
Sharing his experience about data-driven cricket on SportifywithPRG podcast, former India pacer and current chief selector, Ajit Agarkar recalled his stint as the Delhi Capitals assistant coach and said there is an ‘incredible amount of data’ available but still, an individual is still needed to make decisions on the field and run the show.
“It’s incredible how much is out there. You can certainly plan and you can go really deep. I mean, we use it all the time. I mean, again, look, when it comes to selection, you still want to watch the player,” Agarkar said.
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“You want to see them play, how they are under pressure, those sorts of things. But the amount of data that’s available, is incredible. You can actually plan a whole innings and I think all teams do it in the IPL. Everyone does it. They use data because a particular batsman, you see it every night in an IPL game where his hitting zones are, where he is perhaps a little bit weaker, doesn’t mean it will work all the time.
“My take is you still need a guy out there running the show. I mean, you need a captain because not everything that you’ve planned is going to go your way on a particular day. That’s where you need human instinct,” he added.
To explain his point better, Agarkar cited MS Dhoni and the latter’s leadership qualities and an astounding cricketing mindset that led the Indian cricket team to enormous success.
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“You might tomorrow just run everything with data. But I mean, that’s why there’s a captain. Otherwise, you may not have a captain,” Agarkar said.
“That’s why you call MS Dhoni a great captain because he had feel for the game. He knew what was happening, and how the game was changing. It’s the same with international trade. You’ve got the feel for the game. You’ve got the instinct that, oh, you know, certain batsman, maybe we’ve spoken that he does a x or a y thing at this stage in a game, but maybe he’s trying to do something different and what do I do? That’s why you need somebody there.
“I still feel the captain’s the boss, but it’s very, very useful. It’ll be silly to say that, oh, there’s no, you know, let the captain run the show because all this helps. And it’s quite fascinating how accurate most times it is,” he added.
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