'That’s why you call MS Dhoni a great captain...': Agarkar's honest take on why AI can't take over the skipper's role

The modern world has been evolving at a rapid pace as the emergence of data science and artificial intelligence also took centre stage in recent times for rapid development. The cricket teams also rely heavily on data analysts to prepare themselves and make the ideal strategy for the opposition and specific individuals. The advancement of technology has improved the quality of the sport too. However, one didn't rely entirely on data science to get the desired as human instincts still hold the biggest importance.

BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar talked about the emergence of data science and AI but emphasised on why sports the data is not enough to check the credentials of the players.

“It’s incredible how much 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 SportifywithPRG.

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The veteran cricketer pointed out that you always need a human to lead the side, not any AI version as human instinct plays a massive role in the game.

“My take is you still need a guy out there running the show. I mean, you need a captain because not everything that you’ve planned is going to go your way on a particular day. That’s where you need human instinct,” he added.

“You might tomorrow just run everything with data. But I mean, that’s why there’s a captain. Otherwise, you may not have a captain,” Agarkar said.

He further emphasised his opinion, Agarkar gave the example of legendary India captain MS Dhoni and said how important a role a captain plays in the side with his instincts and running the show in the middle to get the desired results.

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

“I still feel the captain’s the boss, but it’s very, very useful. It’ll be silly to say that, oh, there’s no, you know, let the captain run the show because all this helps. And it’s quite fascinating how accurate most times it is,” he added.