Rahul Dravid told predicting injuries to players is something that has not been done so far despite the advancement of technology. Former India skipper and coach Rahul Dravid on Saturday hoped Artificial Intelligence would be able to predict injuries to players in future but also alerted against over-use and dependency on technology in cricket.
Rahul Dravid told predicting injuries to players is something that has not been done so far despite the advancement of technology.
Also Read : https://sportslila.com/icc-champions-trophy-2025-virat-kohli-plays-300th-odi-vs-new-zealand-as-india-aim-to-continue-winning-run/
Rahul Dravid told at a panel discussion during AMFI Mutual Fund Summit on Saturday “On the sporting field, one of the things that you are really hopeful about what AI might be able to do, is (to predict) injuries,”
“You just look at the level of injuries that we have and no one really has a perfect answer as to why people pick up stress fractures and there is no one size fits all; I am just using a stress fracture for the back as an example for fast bowlers.”
“You have seen over the last years so much of data, so much of sports medicine, science and stuff going into it but no one being able to really predict that, that’s sad, that’s (about) people’s careers, lives. So if AI can get us there and we will be able to predict injuries,” Dravid added.
Dravid told finding the right balance in use of technology and human Judgment is paramount.
“I’m not saying that you can adopt it completely, but certainly it’s a great tool and it’s something that is being used more and more in sport in terms of strategy, in terms of tactics, player development, player enhancement,” he told.
“In this day and age, you have got to be able to use all of this data and technology for your benefit.
“(But) you can’t become a slave of it, but certainly there are huge advantages to using artificial intelligence. You have got to find that balance between recognizing that the data is important,” the batting dedicated told.
Dravid told while technology has helped in matters of “fairer selection” between players, it can’t help picking teams for variety of conditions that teams come across while playing at multiple venues.
“You are already seeing data being used a lot in selection and becoming a lot better in terms of fairer selection, but at the moment we have not reached the point where we can just use data and stats to pick sides for variety of conditions,” he told.
“They are getting there, we are getting better and better at using the data as selectors.”
“When we pick an IPL teams we are using the data and analytics a lot more than we did when we first started out in the IPL. We are already there but I don’t think we can completely rely on it,” he added.
Follow me at WhatsApp for easily getting updated sports news : https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vam2pq77DAX3veJWfV2a
Referring the recent example of Premier Indian bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who absent the ongoing Champions Trophy due to a back-related problem with the same issue also keeping him away from action when Rahul Dravid was India head coach, the former captain told too much reliance on technology won’t help either.
“Can we clone five Bumrahs or something? I mean, I’m just saying that, but that wouldn’t be fun either, right? Where is the uniqueness then?” he joked.
“I think maybe leave sport alone for a bit and we don’t want to get AI too involved in sport. There’s got to be that human element to it. There’s got to be a level of uniqueness to sport. So, that would be my wish really that we’d never get to a point where we are… It becomes easy.” he told.
“Bumrah is unique because it’s so hard to do what Bumrah does,” told Dravid while agreeing that the ace bowler losing the eight-team contention was a tough for India.”
