"Dhoni is a great captain because": Ajit Agarkar on data versus human battle in cricket

NEW DELHI: Indian men's team chief selector Ajit Agarkar said that legendary wicketkeeper-batter and World Cup-winning skipper MS Dhoni is a great captain and his instinctive leadership and "feel for the game" is no match for artificial intelligence.

Dhoni is currently playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). He is one of the most decorated captains in the history of cricket and the first-ever to win all the ICC white-ball trophies, the ICC T20 World Cup (2007), ICC Cricket World Cup (2011) and ICC Champions Trophy (2013) as a skipper. He has also led CSK to five IPL and two Champions League T20 (CLT20) titles.

Speaking on SportifywithPRG podcast, Agarkar expressed his wonder at the amount of data about players and teams which is available to every team through data analysts. This data helps them plan match situations and against players in a much better manner.

But as a selector Agarkar said, the value of a player is still there and one wants to see them play, how they perform under pressure. Data does not work all the time and there is still a need for a captain and his human instinct since planning using data and AI might not always work.

"It is incredible how much (data) 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 on the podcast.

"You want to see them play, how they are under pressure, those sorts of things. But the amount of data that is 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 of 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. But it does not 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 have planned is going to go your way on a particular day. That's where you need human instinct," Agarkar concluded his point.

Agarkar said that Dhoni is a great captain because of the "feel" he has for the game and his instincts.

"That is why you call MS Dhoni a great captain because he had a feel for the game. He knew what was happening, and how the game was changing. It is the same with international trade. You have got the feel for the game. You have got the instinct that, oh, you know, certain batsman, maybe we have spoken that he does a x or a y thing at this stage in a game, but maybe he is trying to do something different and what do I do? That is why you need somebody there," said Agarkar.

CSK will next play Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 14 at Wankhede. The 'Men in Yellow' are at the fourth spot in the points table with three wins and two losses.