Cricket is our national passion, politics and cricket is the talk of every drawing room in the country, and the entire nation remains enormously concerned about the national cricket affairs, from the selection of players till their performance. Experts write and voice their opinions.

They raise the flag and highlight the fault lines when they smell the rat. Sometimes the decision makers notice the flags and apply the correction but mostly these voices are ignored.

Human beings have their limitations and are bound to make mistakes. But the mistakes are explicable, if done with good intentions. Eight teams will be featuring in the coming ICC Champions Trophy tournament, scheduled from Februry 19. The elimination stage of the tournament will begin from March 4 and the grand finale will be held on March 9.

Pakistan are the defending champions and also the host of the tournament. Despite the fact that ICC controls the entire tournament including the preparation of wickets, the home team always have an advantage of local support and playing environment in general.

The professional teams select their squads keeping in mind the playing conditions in host country and the form and fitness of the players. The weather is likely to remain dry with sunny skies and temperatures will vary between 12 to 25degrees centigrade during the tournament. The playing conditions will suit stoke playing and some assistance will be available for the quality spinners during the tournament.

Spectators will frequently witness innings of three hundred plus, and its successful chase in fifty overs game. This means that the matches will be won by batters and not the bowlers.

A lot has already been said about the team selection and further discussion on the subject is tenuous. Various sports experts have highlighted the fault lines in the team but it seems a futile exercise.

Keeping in mind the fact that human input is being constantly ignored by the cricketing authorities, a friend of mine who is a cricket enthusiast and an IT expert in USA, asked the Deep-Seek to look into the problems of Pakistan Cricket team, and suggest pragmatic solutions. Based on the available data and results of the last ten years the artificial intelligence came out with interesting results, which I would like to share with the readers.

AI identified poor fitness, technical issues, mental toughness and lack of long term strategies as the major problem areas in the Pakistan team. AI also suggested the actionable suggestions which are being shared.

Deep-Seek highlights that inconsistent fitness levels amongst the players is a major problem area. Some main players in the team lack the required athleticism, leading to frequent injuries, poor fielding and fatigue particularly in the longer versions of game.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) said, that Pakistani players struggle to maintain intensity in tests and ODIs and their sluggish movements in the field results in costly boundaries and run outs.

AI suggested, that a year round fitness regime tailored according to the roles and tasks of bowlers, batters and all-rounders’ should be adopted. AI also suggested a high intensity interval training (HIT) to improve the speed and agility of our players.

AI was also of the view, that the fitness of players and their work load must be monitored throughout the years, and the players should not shy away from Yo-Yo and sprint time tests.

While assessing the technical problems Deep Seek identified that Pakistani top order batters struggle against swing, seam, bounce and spin leading to frequent batting collapses. The players also play reckless shots in pressure situations resulting in unnecessary dismissals at crucial times.

AI was of the opinion, that our batters were not only uncomfortable against short pitched deliveries, but fail to adjust against the quality spin bowling. The players also

droop critical catches, and misfields due to poor technique, anticipation and lack of fitness.

In the solution part, AI suggested specialised batting camps to address the technical flaws like footwork against quality spin or playing late against the swing. It also suggested that Pakistan team must focus on match simulation drills to improve the short selection under pressure.

The bowlers need to work on speed, variations and accuracy through extended yet targeted net sessions. AI strongly suggested, that the improvement in the area of fielding is of vital importance in modern day cricket, and instead of leaving it at the will of individual players, interesting drills should be introduced so that mark improvement could be attained in the areas of catching, throwing and diving.

Mental fitness and lack of focus among the players was at the top of Deep-Seek concerns. AI was of the opinion, that Pakistani players lack confidence and they crumble under pressure while chasing targets or defending the low totals. AI identified that frequent changes in the team. Its management staff, and leadership greatly affected the player’s confidence and moral.

Deep-Seek strongly recommended, that Pakistan under 19 and senior teams must engage the services of a qualified sports psychologist, on long term basis, who should be well versed with visualization and focus control techniques through mental exercises, and work relentlessly on building positive team culture so that the players are encouraged to take calculated risks without the fear of failure.

While summing up the overall strategy to be adopted for the betterment of team, AI rightly proposed a data driven approach and use of analytics to identify the weaknesses objectively and thus tailor the strategies.

Last but not the least Deep-Seek suggested to invest in the grass root cricket to develop a pipeline of technically sound and confident players with requisite leadership skills so that sustainability in performance can be ensured in the team.

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