England Women's cricket head coach Jon Lewis has revealed that he and his staff make use of artificial intelligence to aid in their team selection process, and even did so during last summer’s Ashes.
The technology is produced by London-based firm PSi, and is employed by various sporting organisations around the world from the UP Warriorz in the T20 Women’s Premier League in India, to the England men’s rugby union team, Wigan Athletic FC and rugby league club Wigan Warriors.
What are the advantages ? Well, it allows Lewis and other coaches who engage with the software to envisage how particular scenarios might play out within the game, and therefore select the best personal to produce a performance.
Fascinating from Jon Lewis this morning, who revealed England used an AI company to help with squad selection in the Women’s Ashes:
“They run about 250,000 simulations, with all permutations of what could happen. It helped us win the T20 series to get us back in the Ashes.”— Henry Moeran (@henrymoeranBBC) May 3, 2024
“We are able to run simulated teams versus the simulated opposition to give us an idea about how those teams may match up against each other,” he explains.
“I can send multiple different line-ups to the PSi, and they run about 250,000 simulations per team that I send, with all different permutations that could happen through the game,” he adds.
Lewis even went as far to detail how the technology helped his side during their comeback versus Australia to clinch a draw in last summer’s Ashes, where it highlighted the strengths of off-spinner Charlie Dean, who was then drafted in after just one game of the T20 leg of the series.
“We saw a real strength in Australia, and we matched up our strength to that,” he says.
“That worked really well and it helped us win the T20 series in particular, which got us back in the Ashes,” he added.
With all of that said, Lewis emphasised how he would favour a “people-first approach”, and that while AI was unlikely to replace human selectors, it is a useful tool staff can utilise to “give you a really objective view of what could happen and what has happened previously.”
“I think it will help with borderline decisions in terms of selections and match-ups,” he says.
In this way, it could be availed of in a somewhat similar manner to the ‘Monte Carlo’ simulation system, devised by mathematician Nathan Leamon for the England men’s teams.
Furthermore, it’s also expected that AI could be used to come up with more personalised training programmes and methods for individual athletes.
England Women’s cricket coach Jon Lewis revealed Friday he is using artificial intelligence to aid team selection, saying the technology helped his side square last season’s Ashes. pic.twitter.com/m1JYfxz5zs
— Economy.pk (@pk_economy) May 3, 2024
