London are using artificial intelligence to select their squad, women's head coach John Lewis has revealed, with the technology providing vital feedback as far as fixtures are concerned and helping them win the Ashes series. He said it was also helpful.
Lewis said she learned about the technology, provided by London-based company PSi, while coaching the UP Warriors in the inaugural edition of the Women's Premier League to be held in India in March 2023. .
Interestingly, Steve Borthwick, England Rugby Union coach and manager of rugby league team Wigan Warriors and English Football League One side Wigan Athletic, also uses the same system, according to sports media. The company reported.
England's head coach said that in the match against Australia during last year's Women's Ashes, when two in-form players with almost similar skill sets were considered for selection, he ultimately chose one player. He said the AI system was successful in making the final decision.
“We can play simulated teams against simulated opponents and get an idea of how those teams will play against each other,” Lewis was quoted as saying.
“You send multiple different lineups to the company and they run them. I think we send about 250,000 simulations per team, including all the different combinations that could occur during a game.”
“What I'm saying is it's not how you select your team, it's part of the selection you use to understand what's going to happen in the future. We played against the Australian side in the Ashes last summer. We used it well in the matchup,” Lewis added.
Providing further insight into how the system has helped the England women's team, Lewis said: “There was one selection of her in particular last year. We saw the real strength of Australia and matched our strength, our best bowlers, in that part of the match against Australia last year.
“It worked really, really well for us. It helped us win the T20 series in particular and get us back into the Ashes,” Lewis said of England's 2-1 win over Australia. said.
“Both players were players I was thinking of drafting. So it helped with those selections, and it turned out that it worked out really well,” he said.
However, Lewis admitted that it cannot replace the traditional method of monitoring players in preparation and selecting teams, and that AI can only help make better decisions.
“Obviously we're on the ground with the people and that's probably the first thing we look at when making selections. We use our cricketing eye to see which players are playing well.” said Lewis.
“But this is just a small part of what we do and it's very interesting and we had a very good result against Australia last summer.”
“I think this will help determine the boundaries when it comes to selection and matchups. Will I ever be at the forefront of choosing a team? In my opinion, no. Other coaches are completely different. “It's really interesting how you feel about it,” he said.
Lewis said that AI can only play a small role in the overall process, and that helping players best prepare remains paramount.
“That can help with selection, but my biggest focus is first getting the people right, getting everyone in the right headspace, getting the game in order, and then using data to help with selection. to support,” he added.
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