Cricket

Champions Trophy 2017 Fantasy Guide: Do’s and Don’ts for the Champions Trophy Fantasy League

Utkarsh Bhatla
|PublishedMay 31, 2017

In a country full of opinions, there are bound to be multiple players who would try and cater to the needs of the cricket hungry fans, but we’ll keep the scope of our analysis to two major Fantasy sites, the Official Champions Trophy Fantasy League( http://fantasy.icc-cricket.com/ICC/en/5/clienthome.do) and the Fandromeda Fantasy League(www.fandromeda.com).(Do’s and don’ts for the Champions Trophy Fantasy League)

Basic Fantasy Guidelines

1) Never give up (Easier said than done)

Now, the first thing that you need to remember while playing the Champions Trophy Fantasy league is that you should sign up only if you are in it for the long haul. I know this generation fears commitment, but hey, this is sport and not love(sometimes both of them mean the same though but let’s not go there).

There will be bleak periods, but with a sound strategy and your daily dose of Fantasy tips (Yes, I’ll be giving those throughout the tournament) you are bound to hit your purple patch. Just don’t give up, I won’t.

2) Wait for the toss and the team sheets before making changes(Only for Fandromeda as the official league locks in half an hour before the game)

This could be a hassle for all those who might be busy during the day with wordly chores, but hey, this is more important. You could make 100 PPTs, 1000 excel sheets, write 10000 lines of code, but nothing could fetch you as much respect as topping your IPL Fantasy Private League. So, focus, take time out, because this could be the real deal breaker. Teams tend to try out a lot of different combinations throughout the tournament and you wouldn’t want to invest money in a player and see him warming the bench, would you?

Also Read: Why you should play the Champions Trophy Fantasy League

Also, the toss plays a major role in selecting who your captain will be. For eg: In most cases I would captain a bowler only if he is bowling first, as in the second innings it might happen that the game finishes before the allotted 50 overs and thus he might end up not bowling his full quota of 10 overs. Also, if you want to make a number 4 batsman as your captain, do so only if his team bats first, as in the second innings he either might have too much to do or too little.

3) Assess the pitch and weather conditions

There is a very simple way of knowing how the pitch would behave. tune into the IPL telecast around 45 minutes before the game(that is when the pitch report happens), listen to what Sanjay Manjrekar, Ramiz Raja and Athar Ali Khan have to say, and then do exactly the opposite of it. If they label the pitch as a turner, get in a few quicks, if they label it as a batting heaven, get in a few spinners.

For the weather forecast, keep accuweather handy and then just pray to god!

4) When opting for batsmen, put all your money on the number 3 and 4 batsmen

In the ODI format, it is the top 4 that will always go on to make scores in excess of 70. The lower order batsmen could contribute now and then, but you can never really bank on them, as the top order could leave them with very few balls to work with.

In England, just to be safe, always prefer the number 3 and number 4 batsman, as opposed to openers, as the ball could do a bit in the initial overs of a batting innings.

When opting for batsmen who bat at number 5, 6 or 7, make sure they bowl a bit as well, so that you can make up for their batting ‘failures’ with bowling points.

5) Make death bowlers your best friends

Remember, every wicket that a bowler takes has the same number of points. The Fantasy World does not discriminate between batsmen, and thus if you take Kohli’s wicket or Umesh Yadav’s, you’ll end up getting the same number of points. So, it is only logical that you opt for bowlers who get to bowl at least four overs in the death, so that they can chip away with a few cheap wickets.

6) Use the wicketkeeper card wisely

A wicketkeeper who bats in the top 4 is gold dust, use all your money and just jump on that beautiful creature, because he is the one who will help you soar high. Keepers generally end up scoring 30 points for their wicketkeeping skills, being involved in caught behinds, stumpings and run outs. So, if you have to chose between a Hashim Amla and a Quinton De Kock, always go for Quinton De Kock, as he’ll always give you more fielding points than Amla, and Amla would have to score that extra 20 runs to fetch you the same amount of points.

7) Invest in big players, do not fall too much into the ‘differentiator’ trap

You often see people stacking their teams up with players that not many would have picked, just to form a ‘different’ team. And that is where they start digging their own grave. You need to have the obvious match winners in your side, or else you’ll fall too far behind. The differentiator theory has to be used miserly and has to be used on a maximum of one player in 3-4 matches.