Big Data For 1

(Clockwise, from top) A broadcast truck during the Sky Sports cricket coverage of a match at Lord's; Rahul Dravid; ICC commentators Ian Smith (left) and Sanjay Manjrekar; analyst Jarrod Kimber; and the late Bob Woolmer (right).

- Aditya Mani Jha

The 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been anything but typical—how could it be, with the armed conflict between India and Pakistan forcing a week-long hiatus in May? Yet, the tournament remains a barometer for cricket's overarching trends. Even a casual glance at an IPL broadcast tells us the direction in which the game is heading—scientific, data-backed and underpinned by professional analytics.

The pre-match show is punctuated by bursts of data specific to the venue—average scores, average degree of spin/seam movement, the average and economy rates for every single style of bowling. Two opposing players are pitted against one another in "matchups," and we have ball-by-ball data about which batter fared poorly against which bowler. Former players plot the dismissals of key batters, keeping the bowlers of the day in mind, while broadcasters quickly back up their arguments using ball-tracking data.

"If you're a professional cricketer today," says former India wicketkeeper-batter Deep Dasgupta, 47, "and you're playing for your country or you're playing in the IPL, you know that the other teams will have seen hours and hours of footage of you at play. There will be people whose job it is to go over the data, analyze your every weakness and figure out how to capitalize on it."

Every team in the IPL knows that their key players are being deconstructed; massive datasets are being pored over by professional analysts; players are aware they will be "figured out" sooner rather than later; they have to keep finding new and creative answers to questions being posed on-field—all of which has changed the game at the day-to-day level.