It has not been the best of times of late for the Pakistan cricket team. After the early exit in the T20 World Cup earlier this year, they had to suffer a humiliating 10-wicket defeat to Bangladesh in the first Test of the ongoing series. To arrest the freefall, the Pakistan Cricket Board has turned to Artificial Intelligence to help with its player selection.
PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi had promised that there would be a “major overhaul” after the WC exit, but the team that took on the Bangladeshis in Rawalpindi had mostly familiar faces. Pakistan did not include a specialist spinner and instead, went with four pacers – a decision which was widely lambasted. Pakistan have not won a Test at home since the win over South Africa at Rawalpindi in December 2021.
After the loss, Naqvi had lamented the lack of a talented pool of players to fall back upon to replace underperforming players. However, PCB hopes that its new domestic tournament – Champions Cup, which will be held in Faisalabad from September 12 to 29 – will address the issue in the long run.
Interestingly, PCB is now going to rely on AI to select a talented pool of players based on the data and records from the 50-overs tournament. Naqvi said that the board is targeting a pool of 150 players, of which 80 per cent will be picked using AI, to bring in more objectivity and transparency.
“The Champions Cup will end in September, and then there will be records for everyone,” Naqvi said. “Anyone who isn’t performing will be immediately replaced. It shouldn’t come down to anyone’s individual opinions and wishes.”
The PCB has made it mandatory for all the top players to take part in the Champions Cup. It has also appointed former stalwarts Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq and Sarfaraz Ahmed as mentors of the five teams taking part in the tournament. While Mushtaq is a former head coach, Younis was a PCB adviser on cricket affairs recently, and also had a coaching stint with the national team.
