Former Indian skipper and popularly known as the Wall, Rahul Dravid is of the opinion that the use of data in cricket should go beyond the boundary walls and instead of restricting it to just helping in strategy and team selection, data analysis can also be used for providing a good platform which will ensure a good and even contest between two teams.
Dravid who is the Director of Cricket Operations at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) was part of a panel comprised of former South African batsman and world-cup winning coach Gary Kirsten and former English female cricketer Isa Guha. Both of them agreed on the matter that data analysis should be given a much larger role. Technology has always been an integral part of cricket and Dravid now wants to take it to a different level.
"Data should drive a good contest between bat and ball in cricket, not just for hitting fours and sixes," Dravid said. "Cricket has always been statistically-driven like baseball, but over the past 15 years we have moved beyond comparing averages and now use data to help in strategy and player selection."
There has been a never-ending debate for a long time that cricket with each passing day is becoming a more batting batsmen friendly game, especially in the shorter formats. In ODI’s the rule of powerplays and the usage of two new balls has worked in favour of the batsmen. Moreover, the popularity of T20 cricket has also made data analysis that much important for batsmen while helping them hit more boundaries.
"The days are not far off when people are going to turn down a single because the matchup suites them to be able to hit a six in the two or three balls," said Dravid. "Data should drive a good contest between bat and ball in cricket, not just for hitting fours and sixes,” Dravid concluded.