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Rahul Dravid Emphasises The Role Of Data Analysis In Modern Day Cricket

Rahul Dravid emphasises the role of data analysis in modern-day cricket

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.

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Ricky Ponting picks 7 players in his 'players to watch out for' in IPL 2021

Australia’s world cup winning captain Ricky Ponting has revealed his players to watch out for in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League starting today. Ponting, who is currently the coach of the Delhi Capitals, has backed one player each from the remaining seven franchises of the league in an interview with cricket.com.au. From the camp of the defending champions Mumbai Indias, Ponting has out his weight behind Hardik Pandya while the emerging Indian talent Devdutt Radikal has earned an honourable mention from Ponting among his Royal Challengers teammates. From one of the most consistent IPL teams over the years—the Chennai Super Kings, Ponting has backed Suresh Raina to have a memorable season after opting out of the tournament last year. Ponting has backed the mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarathy to have an impressive season from the Kolkata Knight Riders camp, after missing out on playing for India after the last edition of IPL due to injuries. From the newly-renamed Punjab Kings, Ponting has thrown his backings behind the highly aggressive batsman Nicholas Pooran who is tasting a lot of success in the shortest formats of the game in the recent past. T Natarajan, who emerged as one of the finds of the last season for the Sunriser Hyderabad has been touted to have another brilliant season with the ball in IPL 2021. From the highly enterprising Rajasthan Royals camp, Ponting has backed on the stars of Rahul Tewatia to produce magical performances one more time after steering his team out of trouble on numerous occasions last year. Notably, Ponting will be in the charge of the Delhi Capitals who will be missing the services of their regular skipper Shreyas Iyer and Ponting will be hoping the stand-in skipper Rishabh Pant will be the eighth player apart from his list of players to have a shining season.

WATCH: Rahul Dravid breaks mirror in road rage

Former India skipper Rahul Dravid is probably the most calm and composed cricketer that the world has seen. He is someone who has never really been involved in a controversy or in a heated situation during his playing days. But in one of the video clip from an advertisement has shown a totally opposite side of the former batsman where he is seen showing aggression. The advertisement left India and RCB captain in splits and he in fact tweeted, “Never seen this side of Rahul bhai.” Dravid had been an integral part of the Indian team during his playing days especially in the longer format of the game. He played 164 Tests for India scoring 13288 runs at an average of over 52 in his career including 36 centuries. Apart from Tests, the right-handed batsman was capped 344 times in ODIs and amassed over 10000 runs during the course. Dravid also represented India in one T20I where he scored 31 runs. The right-hander was handed over the captaincy during the ODI World Cup in 2007 but Dravid and his troops had a forgettable time in that edition after the team had to bow out in the group stage itself. They lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the group stage and only managed to win against Bermuda. Dravid might have failed to lead India to a World Cup win but has played an instrumental role in nurturing young talents at the U19 and India A level. He was the coach of the U19 and ‘A’ teams between 2016 and 2019 before becoming the Director of Cricket Operations at the NCA. Under Dravid’s coaching, India U19 team ended up as the runners up in 2016 World Cup while lifting the trophy in 2018.

IPL 2021: Steve Smith and Marcus Stoinis attend first training session with Delhi Capitals

Australian players Steve Smith and Marcus Stoinis attended their first practice session with the Delhi Capitals after completing their mandatory quarantine period on Friday, 9 April. The former Australian and Rajasthan Royals skipper Steve Smith will be looking forward to his time with the Capitals as this will be his first season the new team. On the other hand, Stoinis was part of the DC outfit in the last season and did a commendable all-round job for them. As per reports from the Delhi Capitals, it is learnt that the duo played an intra-squad practice game with the rest of the DC team ahead of the tournament. Meanwhile, it must be noted that the runners-up from the previous edition have been training at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai. Delhi Capitals will lock horns against the Chennai Super Kings in their first encounter on 10th April. DC have named Rishabh Pant as their interim skipper for the season after Shreyas Iyer was ruled out for the tournament after dislocating his shoulder in the India vs England series. Steve Smith was part of the Rajasthan Royals squad last time around and also led the franchise. However, his poor returns with the bat and his underwhelming captaincy forced RR to release him ahead of the mini-auctions and he was snapped up by the Capitals for a pretty low price. Meanwhile, head coach Ricky Ponting is optimistic of his team’s chances in the upcoming season especially given the sort of players they have in their arsenal. "I am thrilled with the players that we've got here, and I think we can win the IPL. Might as well go on record and say it now because that's what I am here for and that's what the players are here for," he said. "We've had our chat and it's all about winning and how we can go one step further from last year. But the other important thing for me is that we've got a very different group from the one we had last year. What happened last year doesn't matter. We've got to work out a way to win enough games to qualify and then win the final," he further added.

MX Takatak partners with 7 IPL teams to show behind-the-scenes content

MX Takatak has partnered with seven teams who are featuring in the IPL 2021 to show their content from net practice to all the behind-the-scenes moments. MX Takatak is owned by the Times Group. The teams that have partnered with the app are Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad and will have their official handles on it. Delhi Capitals chief executive officer Vinod Bisht in a statement has said that this will provide an opportunity to the franchise to have an interaction with the fans. “This association (with MX TakaTak) provides us yet another way to engage with our fans by giving them the opportunity to express themselves in new and creative ways," Bisht said in a statement. Chandni Malhotra, general manager, strategic partnerships and alliances, Rajasthan Royals, said that this partnership will enhance and expand the mediums of providing more entertainment to the fans of the franchises. “This specially curated partnership with MX TakaTak is a step in the direction of expanding our mediums of providing that entertainment to our fans directly on to their mobile phones," she said. Karan Bedi, CEO - MX Player and MX TakaTak has expressed delight on providing entertainment to the diverse fan base. “We’re thrilled to be celebrating India’s national obsession on our platform as the official short video partner of the 7 teams. Our aim has always been to entertain our diverse user base and through this innovative association,” he said. The IPL 2021 begins on Friday with RCB locking horns against MI in Chennai in the opener.