After asking last year whether AI can take on humans in fantasy football leagues, I’ve turned my attention to cricket. I’ve used plenty of Test cricket simulators over the years, running my own fantasy leagues with the likes of Syedur Rahman’s simulator and International Test Cricket. But these, and the more modern Cricket Coach, are now quite dated so can AI fill the gap and simulate Test matches?

In short, yes they can. But accurately and realistically?

The jury is out.

I’ve tested several models with the same prompt and similar to my experiment with fantasy football, some of them just cannot produce a scorecard that looks like a scorecard, or grapple with the complexities of Test cricket.

But others are promising. My biggest challenge has been trying to get the AI to not simply produce a scorecard in which the players with the best averages always top score. In various tests using England, it seemed inevitable that Joe Root and Harry Brook would always score most runs simply because they average over 50.

The best one I’ve found so far, and the cleanest scorecard/summary output is Grok, although all models are guilty of overestimating how much the Zimbabwean bowlers were going to do against England (please forgive me hosting the game at Lord’s rather than Trent Bridge!)

Here’s a sample output. A work in progress, you might say, particularly as the keen-eyed amongst you will have spotted that the innings totals don’t tally with the batting or bowling figures and there don’t appear to be any extras!

England vs Zimbabwe Test Match at Lord’s

England 1st Innings: 359 all out (93.2 overs)

Batsman	How Out	Runs (Balls)
Zak Crawley	c Tsiga b Muzarabani	22 (31)
Ben Duckett	c Raza b Ngarava	35 (42)
Ollie Pope	c Williams b Muzarabani	42 (61)
Joe Root	lbw b Williams	94 (138)
Harry Brook	c Ervine b Ngarava	67 (75)
Ben Stokes	b Chivanga	48 (65)
Jamie Smith	c Tsiga b Muzarabani	41 (57)
Gus Atkinson	c Raza b Nyauchi	29 (60)
Josh Tongue	lbw b Muzarabani	6 (15)
Sam Cook	c Tsiga b Ngarava	4 (10)
Shoaib Bashir	not out	0 (3)

Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Richard Ngarava	23.2	4	83	3
Blessing Muzarabani	24	3	89	4
Tanaka Chivanga	18	2	66	1
Victor Nyauchi	15	1	57	1
Sean Williams	13	1	44	1

Zimbabwe 1st Innings: 273 all out (82.5 overs)

Batsman	How Out	Runs (Balls)
Brian Bennett	c Smith b Atkinson	10 (19)
Ben Curran	lbw b Cook	61 (108)
Craig Ervine	c Pope b Tongue	55 (94)
Sean Williams	c Root b Stokes	72 (112)
Sikandar Raza	b Tongue	31 (52)
Wessly Madhevere	c Smith b Stokes	18 (41)
Tafadzwa Tsiga	c Brook b Bashir	44 (98)
Richard Ngarava	lbw b Bashir	6 (17)
Blessing Muzarabani	c Smith b Atkinson	4 (9)
Tanaka Chivanga	b Cook	2 (7)
Victor Nyauchi	not out	0 (2)

Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Gus Atkinson	19	3	55	2
Josh Tongue	18.5	2	59	2
Sam Cook	16	3	52	2
Ben Stokes	14	1	46	2
Shoaib Bashir	15	2	41	2

England 2nd Innings: 231/5 declared (58.3 overs)

Batsman	How Out	Runs (Balls)
Zak Crawley	c Tsiga b Muzarabani	28 (39)
Ben Duckett	c Raza b Muzarabani	35 (43)
Ollie Pope	c Williams b Ngarava	30 (51)
Joe Root	not out	71 (102)
Harry Brook	b Chivanga	52 (59)
Ben Stokes	b Williams	25 (31)
Jamie Smith	not out	19 (26)

Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Richard Ngarava	15	2	58	1
Blessing Muzarabani	15.3	2	62	2
Tanaka Chivanga	12	1	48	1
Victor Nyauchi	10	0	42	0
Sean Williams	6	0	21	1

Zimbabwe 2nd Innings: 203 all out (61.4 overs) – Target: 318

Batsman	How Out	Runs (Balls)
Brian Bennett	c Smith b Atkinson	9 (16)
Ben Curran	lbw b Atkinson	22 (47)
Craig Ervine	c Root b Bashir	31 (63)
Sean Williams	c Pope b Bashir	58 (84)
Sikandar Raza	c Smith b Stokes	42 (69)
Wessly Madhevere	b Tongue	10 (24)
Tafadzwa Tsiga	c Brook b Tongue	8 (19)
Richard Ngarava	lbw b Bashir	3 (10)
Blessing Muzarabani	c Smith b Stokes	2 (6)
Tanaka Chivanga	b Atkinson	0 (3)
Victor Nyauchi	not out	0 (2)

Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Gus Atkinson	15	3	46	3
Josh Tongue	14.4	2	51	2
Sam Cook	10	1	36	0
Ben Stokes	11	1	38	2
Shoaib Bashir	11	2	32	3