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India.com
6 days ago
- Sport
- India.com
Dhoni's teammate predicts this team will win in India vs England Test series, his name is...
Matthew Hayden's big prediction on India-England Test series Matthew Hayden told 'Jio Hotstar', 'I don't think England's bowlers are that good, they have suffered many injuries and many players have also retired. This will be a big challenge for the host team. This series can go in India's favor.' Let us tell you that England's two most experienced bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad have retired from international cricket. Now England's bowling line-up has become very weak. Fast bowler Mark Wood is out of at least the first three Tests due to injury. Fast bowler Jofra Archer will also not be able to play in the opening match and Gus Atkinson is still recovering from a hamstring strain. Meanwhile, India will take the field under the leadership of new captain Shubman Gill. Former Indian cricketers Deep Dasgupta and Sanjay Manjrekar have also made predictions about the India vs England Test series. Deep Dasgupta said, 'This is a young team, its captain is also young. The team is going through a phase of change, so England will have a slight advantage and they also have the advantage of playing on home ground, but the match will be very close. I would say England will win 3-2.' Deep Dasgupta said, 'This is a young team, its captain is also young. The team is going through a phase of change, so England will have a slight advantage and they also have the advantage of playing on home ground, but the match will be very close. I would say England will win 3-2.' Image credit: X (Formery Twitter) Sanjay Manjrekar said, 'I think England has the edge. They are playing on their home ground and the Indian team is going through a phase of change, so I think England can win this time.' India has not won any Test series on England soil for the last 18 years. India last won a Test series on England soil in the year 2007, when the team captained by Rahul Dravid defeated England 1-0 in a 3-match Test series. India played the last Test series on England soil in 2021-22. This five-match Test series ended in a 2-2 draw.
Mint
30-05-2025
- Sport
- Mint
Big data has changed cricket
The 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been anything but typical—how could it be, with the armed conflict between India and Pakistan forcing a week-long hiatus in May. Yet, the tournament remains a barometer for cricket's overarching trends. Even a casual glance at an IPL broadcast tells us the direction in which the game is heading—scientific, data-backed and underpinned by professional analytics. The pre-match show is punctuated by bursts of data specific to the venue—average scores, average degree of spin/seam movement, the average and economy rates for every single style of bowling. Two opposing players are pitted against one another in 'matchups", and we have ball-by-ball data about which batter fared poorly against which bowler. Former players plot the dismissals of key batters, keeping the bowlers of the day in mind, while broadcasters quickly back up their arguments using ball-tracking data. 'If you're a professional cricketer today," says former India wicketkeeper-batter Deep Dasgupta, 47, 'and you're playing for your country or you're playing in the IPL, you know that the other teams will have seen hours and hours of footage of you at play. There will be people whose job it is to go over the data, analyse your every weakness and figure out how to capitalise on it." Every team in the IPL knows that their key players are being deconstructed; massive datasets are being pored over by professional analysts; players are aware they will be 'figured out" sooner rather than later; they have to keep finding new and creative answers to questions being posed on-field—all of which has changed the game at the day-to-day level. 'One of the main things is the ball-tracking system," says Dasgupta, who has been a part of the commentary and pre/post-match analysis teams for IPL broadcasts. 'Everything flows downwards from there. If you're a batting coach, you can use the ball-tracking data to tell your batters which lengths and lines are troubling them. If you're a bowling coach, you can use the same data to make specific plans for the opposition's best batters." In Sanjay Manjrekar's playing days—the late 1980s and the 1990s—international teams didn't invest heavily in analysts. In recent years, however, teams have reaped the benefits of astute data analysis. According to the former India batter, young cricketers have been quick to adapt. 'Previously, if the captain or the coach wanted one of their players to make an adjustment in their game, they'd have to rely on what they've observed with their own eyes. But now, with the data and the analytics and everything, it has become very easy to convince players—and also fans, actually. The subjectivity has reduced." Cricket's new backroom Ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup, held in the US and the West Indies, Team India analyst Himanish Ganjoo figured out that the explosive English opening batter Phil Salt was susceptible to deliveries angling in to him, deviating further inwards after pitching, targeting the stumps. The findings were presented to team India coach Rahul Dravid. Sure enough, in the eventual India vs England semi-final, India's Jasprit Bumrah produced a precision-guided missile along these lines, beating Salt's forward prod and crashing into the stumps. 'Rahul Dravid knew precisely how to use the information I presented, how to effectively communicate those points to the players," Ganjoo, 32, tells Lounge. 'It was a great feeling to make whatever small contribution I could—let's say 2-3%—to a World Cup victory for India." Ganjoo, a cosmologist by training, has produced cutting-edge cricketing analysis over the last four-five years. In January 2022, he published a Substack article on what made Indian left-arm finger-spinner Axar Patel a unique threat to batters, especially on Indian pitches, using data from HawkEye's ball-tracking technology. Without delving too much into the technical details, we can say this: the article presented compelling proof that Patel's height (at 6ft, 1 inch, he's taller than other elite spinners like Rashid Khan, Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine) and angle of release made him far less predictable than his peers. The article led to Dravid bringing Ganjoo on-board. 'We had a workflow wherein I would analyse several different types of data for each batter we were facing," says Ganjoo, who is currently based in Paris. 'For every batter I prepared five-six slides, detailing, with graphs and charts, which shots they like to play the most, which shots they are least in control of, what are the kinds of deliveries they seem to be struggling against. Their performance against different lines, lengths, speeds and kinds of movement were analysed. We would present these slides to the coach (Dravid), who would then make game plans." What Dravid had taken note of wasn't Ganjoo's original article, but rather a YouTube breakdown of the same in February 2022, delivered by Australian cricket writer, podcaster and analyst Jarrod Kimber, who runs the popular Good Areas YouTube channel. A trained filmmaker, Kimber has a knack for storytelling and breaks down sophisticated, data-based arguments into actionable bits of cricketing wisdom. 'Ahead of the 2018 Caribbean Premier League, I had been hired as the analyst and assistant general manager for St. Lucia," recalls Kimber, 45, who lives in London. 'I thought I would work with the coaches, work on anything Kieron Pollard (then St. Lucia captain) wanted. Within a couple of hours of arriving I was asked, 'Are you ready to give a team talk about strategy?'. I asked for the video footage from previous seasons—there was no video. I asked if anybody had been collecting basic stats—there was nobody doing that either in the CPL." The CPL was hardly alone in its faltering first steps towards professionalisation. Issues like logistics, finances and a lack of structure were widespread roadblocks in the early days of professional analytics, explained Kimber. One morning Kimber found himself at a Durban bed and breakfast, manually chopping up hours-long game footage into usable clips, patchy internet notwithstanding, for Team Scotland. Powering the T20 age In the context of a franchise team, 'analyst" is ideally a full-time, year-long job, not just during the weeks and months before the tournament begins, not least because the analysts can help with auction strategy too. This is a simple reflection of the fact that T20 cricket has changed rapidly over the last decade and analytics has changed the way we look at the game. In T20, increasingly, we look at required runs and immediately start thinking of the number of sixes it would take to achieve the target. The six has become the primary currency of T20 cricket, in other words. Freddie Wilde, an analyst for the England and Royal Challengers Bangalore men's teams, described this process in the 2019 book Cricket 2.0: The T20 Revolution (co-written with Tim Wigmore). 'The growth of the six in T20 mirrored the ascent of the three in the NBA, which have more than doubled since 2000. The six, like the three in basketball, has a 50% greater pay-off than the previous highest scoring shot, more than making up for it being harder to execute. Both the six and the three represent the marriage of the athletically spectacular and the analytically shrewd. Increased use of data analysis in cricket has been one of a number of factors... to cause a surge in the rate of six-hitting in T20. In 2012 a six was hit every 28 balls. By 2018 that had fallen to one every 20 balls." Over the last decade, a number of companies have built up databases for cricket and developed predictive mathematical models. The rise to prominence of firms like London-based CricViz, and Chennai-based SportsMechanics began in the late 2010s, with T20 leagues starting around the world. A host of deep-pocketed new investors entered the game, eager to see their recently purchased teams being run professionally. Accordingly, a number of cricket writers, journalists and stats people transitioned into professional sports analysis. One of the reasons these changes feel significant is that cricket has been resistant to change. A number of concurrent phenomena in the 1990s, however, turned things around. One of them was the birth of Cricinfo in 1993, which introduced its popular StatsGuru tool by 2000. Then there was the emergence of live cricket as a lucrative category of TV programming. State broadcaster Doordarshan, which reached 60% of the Indian population in the 1990s, broadcast every match played at home. Suddenly, Indian TV screens lit up with 'wagon-wheels" (a diagram of the field with coloured lines indicating where batters are hitting the ball), 'run-worms" (line graphs representing cumulative runs scored across every phase of the innings) and complex fielding charts. This was the Indian viewer's first exposure to analytics in real time, and it whetted our collective appetite. This was already a passionate and involved fanbase. They were crying out not just for data but also for visualisations that communicated it in a lucid, engaging way. The rise of laptop coaches The enduring image of Bob Woolmer, coach of the South Africa team from 1994-99, is him hunched over a laptop screen, watching replays. 'The laptop coach", as he was dubbed, was one of the first international coaches to make extensive usage of computer-based analytics. Woolmer used the contemporary stratagem of 'matchups" back in the 1990s to stymie run-scoring in 50-over cricket. In the 1999 50-over World Cup, Woolmer used wireless earpieces to communicate with South Africa captain Hansie Cronje during the game. The practice was swiftly outlawed but proved, nevertheless, Woolmer's embrace of both technology and the spirit of innovation; two of the things that drive cricket analytics to this day. Woolmer died in 2007 at 58, less than a year before the first-ever T20 World Cup was played. One suspects he would have been a tactical giant in the game's most abbreviated—and analytics-friendly—format. For in the first decade of T20 cricket (2007-16), not many teams, national or franchise, were especially good from a tactical point of view. Most batters approached the 20-over game as though it were a 50-over game, only scrunched up. But where the latter format rewards batters minimising dot-balls (deliveries where no runs are scored), T20 rewards maximal four-and-six hitting. The West Indies men's team won the 2012 and 2016 T20 World Cups, largely on the back of its muscular six-hitters like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell. Several factors through the 2000s—new statistical tools, the influx of money in T20 leagues, and legacy teams getting outflanked in a turbo-charged version of the game—have brought us to this current moment in cricket, where analytics and professional analysts have well-defined roles. Not just gameplay but also everything that happens off the field—training, conditioning, nutrition, etc.—is now a little more scientific, a little more organised. According to IPL commentator and former team India fast bowler Varun Aaron, 35, data and analytics can contribute to the fitness and well-being of fast bowlers (notoriously, the most injury-prone), not to mention improve their skills. 'A year ago, I was working with the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai, designing a new high-performance centre for fast bowling. I put a lot of data-driven processes in place. The data is intended for the coaches, not the players; it's important not to clutter their minds with too much data," says Aaron. 'At the same time, if I tell a young fast bowler to make a technical change in their action, the data helps me prove my point with evidence, it shows the young players exactly where they can make a change that will improve their pace." Aaron, who is currently pursuing a sports science degree at the Centre for Sports Science, part of Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, is representative of this new cricketing landscape, where ex-cricketers are using increasingly scientific methods to train the next generation. Of course, this comes with its own set of challenges. Effective analytics begins with widespread data-gathering and not every corner of the cricketing world is similarly blessed in this regard. In the women's game, for example, collecting enough footage and data can be a challenge. Women's games, especially domestic ones, are very often not broadcast live, or in some cases, captured with a single-camera setup that is, of course, inadequate for professional analysis. 'If you look at this year's men's IPL there are some teenaged players performing very well, about whom the average fan does not know a lot," says Krithika Venkatesan, who works for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) women's team. 'The likes of Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre; YouTube already has so much footage of them playing junior-level cricket and club cricket and so on, stuff that nobody would watch live. But when it comes to the women's game, analysts find it difficult to source footage even for international players. Also there have been only three seasons of the Women's Premier League so far, so analysts have a relatively small sample set to work off." Another potentially tricky area cricket might have to negotiate in the near future is the intersection of professional analysis and organised betting. Within the super-popular fantasy sports app Dream11, for example, there is a paid tier where users can access tips by pro-analysts, and look at their finished teams and compare notes. Twitter threads by the likes of Kimber and Ganjoo have been circulated in betting circles while discussing an upcoming matchday's potential trajectories. The legal status of betting on cricket is wildly variable among cricket-playing nations: in the UK and Australia, for instance, it's legal and centrally regulated, whereas it is illegal in India and Pakistan. Former cricketers also mention another problem: over-reliance on data. Teams run the risk of over-thinking their approach and good old-fashioned cricketing 'wisdom" could be ignored. As Manjrekar notes, 'Teams should remember that the human mind is the most sophisticated analytical tool." 'I always say that cricket is like a performing art," says Dasgupta. 'There is the scientific aspect. But there's also the artistic aspect or the cricketing sixth sense, which should never be underestimated. Ideally, both should go hand in hand." What Dasgupta is describing here may well be the foundation on which analytical teams are assembled in the future, with professionals from various walks of life working in tandem towards cricketing goals. Kimber hypothesises a future picture of the global game along similar lines. 'In the long-term future, I expect many more former players to get involved with analytics, especially younger ones who retired prematurely due to injuries," he says. 'Ideally, you don't want your analytics team to be just four kids from IIT or Cambridge or wherever, who are good at analysis but have never spoken to a cricketer in their lives. What you want is a bunch of different types of people—maybe one of them used to be a journalist, another is a junior coach, a third is a former player, a fourth guy who is the math whiz." As the IPL and other T20 leagues around the world carve out increasingly large chunks of the cricketing calendar for themselves, the visibility and responsibility offered to professional analysts will only increase. This will affect the game but also how cricket is presented. If you're a fan, what would a more data-inclusive game look like? A clue might lie in how the NBA is consumed. It begins with the way the sport produces and organises stats for fans. On the official NBA website, you will get a 360-degree statistical summary of the player you're looking up—points, rebounds, assists, and so on. Now imagine a cricket scorecard where you can see what percentage of false shots played by a batter, or a bowler's economy rates and averages against right versus left-handed batters. Compared to the data presentation of an average NBA or English Premier League broadcast, there's a long way to go. Cricket has some catching up to do to rival the statistical sophistication of other major team sports like basketball and football. The good news is, everyone—players, coaches, franchises and broadcasters—seem to agree that analysis is the future. When data points start to look like runs saved or wickets taken, you know the game has truly changed. Aditya Mani Jha is a writer based in Delhi. Also read: Fantasy leagues are making cricket viewing transactional
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
'Mood of the nation will decide IPL restart'
Any potential resumption of the Indian Premier League would depend on the "mood of the nation", according to former India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta. The IPL was suspended for a week on Friday amid growing tensions between India and neighbouring Pakistan. Some overseas players taking part in the competition, including from England, have already started to leave India. There are 16 remaining matches in the IPL, which was originally due to run until 25 May. "As important as cricket is to India as a nation, there are certain things that are much more important," Dasgupta told BBC Sport. "The last couple of days, things have become more intense, and it only make sense at this moment. The sentiment of the nation is very different." On Thursday, India accused Pakistan of attacking three of its military bases with drones and missiles, a claim which Islamabad denied. Pakistani authorities say 31 people have been killed and 57 injured by Indian air strikes in the country and Pakistan-administered Kashmir since Wednesday morning. Twenty-six civilians were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir last month and India has accused Pakistan of supporting militants behind the attack - an allegation the neighbouring country has rejected. The situation escalated on Tuesday evening when India launched a series of strikes in a move named "Operation Sindoor". Dasgupta, who played eight Tests for India, said a restart of the IPL in a week is "possible" but may not be "realistic". Options for a restart could include condensing the remaining matches to a limited number of venues and playing more double-headers to reduce the time needed. IPL suspended for one week over safety concerns PSL to finish rest of season in UAE However Dasgupta, who was speaking from Lucknow where he was due to be commentating on Friday's game between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, believes the tournament would be unlikely to resume if overseas players are absent. It is understood that most of the 10 England players are leaving India, while the Australians involved are also likely to depart. Players from the West Indies have remained in India. If a short-term restart is not possible, there would an overwhelming desire to complete the tournament later in the year because of its financial value. A $6.02bn rights deal for IPL matches was signed in 2022 and in a statement confirming the suspension, the Board of Control for Cricket in India thanked broadcaster Jiostar for its support in the decision. If the remainder of the IPL is rearranged for later in the year, there would be concern at the England and Wales Cricket Board about an August clash with The Hundred, but a more likely window would be in September. That month was initially earmarked for the Asia Cup, though with matches between India and Pakistan now unlikely to take place, that tournament could be scrapped and replaced by the remainder of the IPL. And there will be long-term questions over future matches between India and Pakistan at global events, with Dasgupta saying he "can't even think" about fixtures between the two countries. "It would be extremely insensitive to even talk about it right now," he said. "Maybe at a future date. We'll see. As of now, India-Pakistan cricket is too trivial to talk about." Even before the latest deterioration in the relationship between the two countries, their cricket teams were only playing each other in multi-nation events. Earlier this year, India refused to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, prompting the International Cricket Council (ICC) to announce that any matches involving the two teams in global events hosted by either country will be played at a neutral venue. The next such instance will be the Women's World Cup in October, hosted by India. Pakistan secured their qualification earlier this month, so will be based in a different country. However, there is now uncertainty if a match between the two can take place, regardless of the venue. It is understood that the ICC feels it is too soon to consider a solution. On Thursday, it was announced that the remainder of the Pakistan Super League will take place in the United Arab Emirates. Teams left Pakistan for the UAE on Friday. Get cricket news sent straight to your phone
BBC News
09-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Mood of the nation will decide IPL restart'
Any potential resumption of the Indian Premier League would depend on the "mood of the nation", according to former India wicketkeeper Deep IPL was suspended for a week on Friday amid growing tensions between India and neighbouring overseas players taking part in the competition, including from England, have already started to leave India. There are 16 remaining matches in the IPL, which was originally due to run until 25 May."As important as cricket is to India as a nation, there are certain things that are much more important," Dasgupta told BBC Sport. "The last couple of days, things have become more intense, and it only make sense at this moment. The sentiment of the nation is very different."On Thursday, India accused Pakistan of attacking three of its military bases with drones and missiles, a claim which Islamabad authorities say 31 people have been killed and 57 injured by Indian air strikes in the country and Pakistan-administered Kashmir since Wednesday civilians were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir last month and India has accused Pakistan of supporting militants behind the attack - an allegation the neighbouring country has situation escalated on Tuesday evening when India launched a series of strikes in a move named "Operation Sindoor".Dasgupta, who played eight Tests for India, said a restart of the IPL in a week is "possible" but may not be "realistic".Options for a restart could include condensing the remaining matches to a limited number of venues and playing more double-headers to reduce the time needed. However Dasgupta, who was speaking from Lucknow where he was due to be commentating on Friday's game between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, believes the tournament would be unlikely to resume if overseas players are is understood that most of the 10 England players are leaving India, while the Australians involved are also likely to depart. Players from the West Indies have remained in a short-term restart is not possible, there would an overwhelming desire to complete the tournament later in the year because of its financial value.A $6.02bn rights deal for IPL matches was signed in 2022 and in a statement confirming the suspension, the Board of Control for Cricket in India thanked broadcaster Jiostar for its support in the the remainder of the IPL is rearranged for later in the year, there would be concern at the England and Wales Cricket Board about an August clash with The Hundred, but a more likely window would be in month was initially earmarked for the Asia Cup, though with matches between India and Pakistan now unlikely to take place, that tournament could be scrapped and replaced by the remainder of the there will be long-term questions over future matches between India and Pakistan at global events, with Dasgupta saying he "can't even think" about fixtures between the two countries."It would be extremely insensitive to even talk about it right now," he said. "Maybe at a future date. We'll see. As of now, India-Pakistan cricket is too trivial to talk about."Even before the latest deterioration in the relationship between the two countries, their cricket teams were only playing each other in multi-nation this year, India refused to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, prompting the International Cricket Council (ICC) to announce that any matches involving the two teams in global events hosted by either country will be played at a neutral next such instance will be the Women's World Cup in October, hosted by India. Pakistan secured their qualification earlier this month, so will be based in a different there is now uncertainty if a match between the two can take place, regardless of the venue. It is understood that the ICC feels it is too soon to consider a Thursday, it was announced that the remainder of the Pakistan Super League will take place in the United Arab Emirates. Teams left Pakistan for the UAE on Friday.
