Two of England’s senior cricket analysts, Nathan Leamon and Freddie Wilde, are leaving the set-up in a move that suggests the national side will place less emphasis on data moving forward.
England’s use of data to inform match strategies has already lessened in the years since Brendon McCullum took over as coach, first of the Test team in 2022 and then the white-ball sides from earlier this year, with analysis understood to be used more sparingly.
The England hierarchy believe that analysis is more important in franchise cricket than the international game, where players tend to have fewer easily exploitable weaknesses.
As part of this approach, England players are encouraged to take more responsibility for their preparation and performance and there has been a reduction in the number of support staff on match days to declutter the dressing room.
McCullum’s regime entails very few team meetings, which can be a forum in which analysis is widely shared among players. While players are always free to consult the analyst themselves, the management emphasise that players should largely rely on their instincts.
Insiders who have worked across the IPL and the national team believe that franchise teams now use data far more prominently than England.
Leamon and Wilde – England’s senior data analyst and white-ball analyst respectively – are both winding down their involvement with the national team. Neither will be involved in England’s white-ball series against West Indies at the end of the month, which marks the start of Harry Brook’s reign as captain in both limited-overs formats.
While England will continue to use analysis moving forward, it is understood that Leamon and Wilde will not be directly replaced, saving the ECB money.
The role of white-ball analyst is set to be merged with red-ball analyst, with Rupert Lewis, the current Test analyst, to take on both roles.
This is part of a general trend of greater alignment between the red and white-ball coaching staff, under McCullum’s overall leadership.
England stepping away from data revolution they led
Leamon, who has worked in a variety of roles with England since 2009, is regarded as among the most significant figures in cricket’s data revolution.
He had a particularly close relationship with Eoin Morgan, who praised his work in helping England’s rebuild in limited-overs cricket, which culminated in the ODI World Cup victory in 2019 and the T20 World Cup win in 2022.
In the white-ball set-up, where data is particularly prominent, Morgan’s retirement in 2022 was significant in England reducing their reliance upon analysis.
Jos Buttler, who succeeded Morgan as captain, was regarded as less receptive to analysis. Buttler has now been replaced as white-ball captain by Brook.
Since winning the T20 World Cup in 2022, England have won just three out of 15 games against Test opposition in world events, performing abjectly in the 2023 ODI World Cup, the 2024 T20 World Cup and this year’s Champions Trophy.
Leamon is currently senior data scientist at the ECB. But his role with England has become less hands-on since stepping back from the full-time white-ball role in 2022, to allow more time for his roles as director of strategy at Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League and Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League.
The growing T20 franchise circuit means that both Leamon and Wilde are now likely to do more work in overseas leagues. Wilde became full-time England white-ball analyst in 2023. He combines this role with being analyst for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who are currently second in this year’s IPL.
Leamon and Morgan were so close that, during matches, the analyst even used coded signals to advise the captain about who data suggested was the optimal bowler to bowl the next over. While Morgan always used his instinct and intuition too, he was among the most data-informed captains in the world game.
England were widely-viewed as at the vanguard of the use of data in the white-ball game. Leamon conducted Monte Carlo simulations of matches, simulating thousands of matches to inform strategies and team selection. He emphasised how changes to the rules of 50-over cricket, after the 2015 World Cup, supported playing in a more attacking way – maximising the first 10 overs with the bat, and then continuing to score at a rapid pace during the middle overs, when only our fielders were allowed outside the 30-yard circle.
These findings aligned with the approach Morgan advocated after the 2015 World Cup, with the captain arguing that smart use of data helped to free up the side.
“Naturally, you don’t take as high a risk as you should and as data tells you to,” Morgan once said. “When you peg back, you feel safe. But you should go the other way.”
England will continue to use data in some ways, however. For instance, England use iHawk cameras in the County Championship to record the speed of bowlers. This then informs England’s selection policy by enabling them to see which bowlers are quickest and how batsmen fare against pace.
England also use data to assess wider attributes when picking their teams. Notably, the height and high release point of Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley were critical to their surprise selections for England’s tour of India in 2024.
Article courtesy of
Source link
