I think I took the thread off topic a little, so here's an idea I had before I went to sleep. It came back after waking up so it must be a good one, right? I'll let the wise minds of Planet Cricket decide. Just based on some of the discussions and a little feedback since I shared those reskilled teams as well as my own experience.
TLDR: A strategy creator in the academy.
This is an extension of some of the ideas that have been shared, by me and others, around team strategies and improving AI bowling and batting. Given that at times it can seem very one dimensional; the bowling seems heavily influenced by mentalities - or whatever it is that creates quite unrealistic bowling at times - the batting feels, again, restricted by mentality, but also by whatever mechanism (run rate?) means that teams seemingly look to score at a consistent rate in the a similar way.
I suppose in essence for players it would mean we could create custom mentalities - e.g. set a mentality for different format, perhaps different circumstances (e.g powerplay, facing the new ball etc) and different attacking options (defensive, attacking or balanced).
For teams: we could set the pattern of attack during a powerplay, middle overs and end of an innings. Perhaps setting the number of overs left that a team would attack. I'm not sure how well this could be done given that we've seen with the ODI chasing issue that dogged the game before the recent patch. There's every chance it'd bring in the whole slogging on the last ball of an over issue.
For bowlers we could set the primary length, primary delivery and then some tiered alternatives. Having Jimmy Anderson come in with the new ball and swinging and seaming the ball on a good length would be very satisfying, if difficult to face. In line with the fields maybe we create an attacking strategy, a defensive strategy and a balanced strategy.
For a spinner we set the primary variation, the frequency with which they use it. Other variations and their frequency. To the point that we prevent bowlers bowling a ball they can't bowl. Also look at how they use flight and/or bounce to fool the batsman.
Barring any major changes to these areas in the game it might be one way of giving us some more control and genuine opportunity to create more diverse strategies and players. The things that we can alter at the moment, skills (unfortunately) or the modifiers don't really seem to influence areas of the game that I personally think are weak, and can ultimately be seen influencing how the AI plays.
If we could share these or attach them to existing players/teams it'd be even better. Alternatively having such options as a default in team or player profiles would be ideal. But being able to save custom strategies (like fields) might mean they can be swapped around more easily then having to go through each time.
It's not a perfectly thought out idea, any thoughts welcome.