NEW DELHI: England women’s cricket coach Jon Lewis on Friday revealed that he is using artificial intelligence to facilitate select his team, noting that the technology played a role in his team’s success during the Ashes tournament last season.
Lewis first came across the technology developed by London-based PSi when he took charge of the UP Warriorz franchise in the Indian Women’s Premier League.
These days, the 48-year-old former England player relies on a company to facilitate him make decisions about team composition, team balance and player lineups in matches.
The system generates predicted results based on the composition of each page.
“I can send a lot of different lineups to PSi in London and they run, I think, about 250,000 simulations per team that I send, with different combinations that might occur during a match,” he said.
“We are able to compare simulated teams against a simulated opponent, which gives us an idea of how these teams might compete against each other.
“I came across it during my time at UP Warriorz and thought it could add value to the England women’s cricket team.”
Lewis said he still favors a “people first” approach, but added: “Data can give a really objective picture of what might happen and what has happened before. I think it will facilitate with boundary decisions in terms of selection and matchups.”
Lewis, who has spoken to English rugby union coach Steve Borthwick about his own apply of the PSi model, said the system proved its value when his team drew last season’s multi-format Women’s Ashes series against arch-rivals Australia.
“Last year in particular, we had one selection, one Ashes period that we went to as a team,” Lewis said, speaking at the announcement of England’s squad for the T20 and ODI matches played at home to Pakistan later this month.
“There were a few selections where the AI really helped because both players I thought would select were in really good form and both were really selected, which helped with those selections.
“We saw real strength in Australia and we matched our strength to that. It really worked, really well and helped us win the T20 series in particular, which brought us back to the ashes.”
Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly critical part of top-level sports, with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach saying last month that it could facilitate identify talented athletes “in every corner of the world.”
He said artificial intelligence could also give more athletes access to personalized training methods.
(With AFP inputs)
Lewis first came across the technology developed by London-based PSi when he took charge of the UP Warriorz franchise in the Indian Women’s Premier League.
These days, the 48-year-old former England player relies on a company to facilitate him make decisions about team composition, team balance and player lineups in matches.
The system generates predicted results based on the composition of each page.
Augment
“We are able to compare simulated teams against a simulated opponent, which gives us an idea of how these teams might compete against each other.
“I came across it during my time at UP Warriorz and thought it could add value to the England women’s cricket team.”
Lewis said he still favors a “people first” approach, but added: “Data can give a really objective picture of what might happen and what has happened before. I think it will facilitate with boundary decisions in terms of selection and matchups.”
Lewis, who has spoken to English rugby union coach Steve Borthwick about his own apply of the PSi model, said the system proved its value when his team drew last season’s multi-format Women’s Ashes series against arch-rivals Australia.
“Last year in particular, we had one selection, one Ashes period that we went to as a team,” Lewis said, speaking at the announcement of England’s squad for the T20 and ODI matches played at home to Pakistan later this month.
“There were a few selections where the AI really helped because both players I thought would select were in really good form and both were really selected, which helped with those selections.
“We saw real strength in Australia and we matched our strength to that. It really worked, really well and helped us win the T20 series in particular, which brought us back to the ashes.”
Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly critical part of top-level sports, with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach saying last month that it could facilitate identify talented athletes “in every corner of the world.”
He said artificial intelligence could also give more athletes access to personalized training methods.
(With AFP inputs)
