How to create a winning dream 11 team for IPL? The ultimate strategy
With just a few matches left, you can’t afford to continue to randomly select your Dream11 teams and hope you’ll somehow win and make crores. You need to get strategic, and work hard on finding the dream team. Remember, there are no short-cuts to success. You need to earn your money, it isn’t a gamble. Spend some time on reading this blog and hopefully, you’ll develop the right mindset that’s required for building your dream team. Following are a few things that you need to keep in mind:
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- Selecting the Captain for your Dream 11 team: This is the most important aspect of whether you are going to be a contender for the top spot. Hardly anyone’s made it to top 10 without having the #1 point scorer as their captain. The points earned by the player simply get doubled when you appoint that player as a captain. The top performing player would generally score anywhere between 80-130 points, and as a captain, would add 160-260 points (generally almost 30-40% of the total points of any team). This means, if you miss finding the right captain, you need to find another player or players who can compensate for those lost points, which is generally impossible.
- Selecting the Vice-captain: This is where it can be a bit tricky. Getting your captain and vice-captain combination right is crucial, however, there could be 2-3 players that could contribute similarly to the overall points. A Vice captain should ideally give you at least 100-150 points (after multiplication by a factor of 1.5) for you to have a chance at the top spot.
- Finding the smaller contributors and accounting for failures: A winning team generally excludes any players who score less than 25-30 points. For instance, selecting an opener who only bats and isn’t a good fielder, or an allrounder, has a high risk, but also a high potential reward. The openers get the maximum chance at scoring big runs because they get 20 overs. However, if they get out cheaply, they might end up giving you less than 10 points and denting your hopes for winning completely. Example, Rohit Sharma or R Gaikwad could give you 250 points, but also end up with 10 points if they get out during power plays. So, find players who have multiple ways of scoring points – Batting, bowling, fielding, wicket-keeping.
- Betting on unexpected game changers: Most people end up selecting the usual suspects, the players who are in form or are known to hit big. If you are able to identify players whom most people thing won’t contribute, you are already ahead of the majority. For instance, Rahul Tewatia turned out to be a surprise, so did R Gaikwad. Had you selected them as captain or vice-captain in the right matches, you would have definitely been among the top 1 percentile.
- Hedge your risks: Depending on how many teams you are able to afford, the more scenarios you are able to cover, the better would be your chances. For example, selecting different pairs of captain and vice captain for different teams with small variations. Betting on bowlers vs all-rounders vs six hitters vs consistent players. Different teams can hedge your risks and hopefully, help you find a combination that’ll work. Also, think about different scenarios like assuming a high scoring match vs a low scoring match.
- Know the game – The ground, the pitch, past matches and the players’ strengths: This is the most important aspect of making your team for different matches. There are so many factors you need to keep in mind. For instance, is the match happening in Dubai, Sharjah or Abu Dhabi? If it’s happening in Sharjah, it has short boundaries, so six hitters have a greater chance, and bowlers might be taken for a pounding. Also, in the past matches, mostly pacers have taken wickets on this pitch. However, as the tournament has progressed, the pitch has become slower and games are starting to become low scoring. So, selecting spin bowlers or all-rounders might give you an advantage along with lower order batsmen. For example, in RCB vs SRH, people who selected Jason Holder and Yujvendra Chahal would have done well.
- Spend time on creating your teams: Don’t simply select your team 25 minutes before the start of the match, you need to start thinking and working on in a day in advance. Make an excel sheet with your team combinations and note down all the different factors that could influence different players’ performance. Make your teams at least 2-3 hours prior to the match start time. After the toss and declaration of the playing 11 for both teams, be diligent about making changes based on this new information in the 25 minutes before the match. The slots get filled within the 20 minutes after the toss, so ensure that you have enrolled your teams in the contests.
- Know the Dream11 point Scoring rules: If you don’t know the rules then you are just shooting in the dark. You should know how bonus system works, how many points does a wicket or a catch give you and what are the penalties. For example, a bowler needs to take 3 wickets to get 75 points, where as a batsman needs to score just about 60 runs with a few boundaries. In this tournament, lot more batsmen have hit 60s runs vs bowlers who’ve taken 3 wickets. So, selecting a pure bowler as a captain is quite risky. Here are some dream 11 IPL rules you should know:
- One wicket = 25 points. 4 wicket bonus= + 8 points
- Maiden over= +8 points
- Half century bonus = +8 points
- Century Bonus = +16 points
- Duck = minus 2 points
- Stump or direct run out = +12 points, if you are involved in effecting a run out, both players get 6 points each
- Catch = +8 points
- For economy rate of more than 11 = minus 6 points
- Strike rate of 60-70 = -2 points
- No points for super over
- Don’t gamble, don’t get desperate, don’t get stressed and limit your spend: You are playing to have fun, not to get rich. There are millions of people playing to get that 1 crore, but only a handful will succeed. If you have worked hard, and played fairly, that’s all you can do. Limit the total amount you’ll spend on Dream 11 and in no case, play a single more contest beyond that limit, otherwise you are going to feel as guilty as a gambler.
Here are few ways you can structure you excel sheets for different matches. First, just note down the players and then different combinations for captain and VC. Feel free to copy and paste these into your own excel sheet.
| Factors | Small Ground, more sixes, team batting first wins, higher order batsmen of team 1, lower order of team 2, six hitters | |||||||||
| Sharjah | High Scoring | |||||||||
| Match 5 | DC | RJ | ||||||||
| 184/8 | 138 | Hetmeyer, Stoinis, Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Twatatia | ||||||||
| Match 4 | MI | Hyd | 763 (Q Kock C, Warner VC) | |||||||
| 208/5 | 174/7 | D Kock, Surya Yadav, H Pandya, Pollard, K Pandya, Warner, Bestriw, M Pandey, pacers | ||||||||
| Match 3 | DC | KKR | 915 (S Iyer C, P Shaw C) | |||||||
| 228/4 | 210/8 | P Shaw, S Iyer, Pant, S Gill, E Morgan, R Tripathi | ||||||||
| Match 2 | KXIP | RR | 972 (M Agarwal C, Samson VC) | |||||||
| 223/2 | 226/6 | KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, N Pooran, S Smith, Samson, Tewatia | ||||||||
| Match 1 | RR | CSK | 1016 (Samson C, S Curran VC) | |||||||
| 216/7 | 200/6 | S Smith, Samsan, Duplesis, Watson,M Vijay, K Jadhav, Dhoni | ||||||||
| Average 1st innings wickets | 5.2 | Lower order batsmen likely to not get a chance – Opp bowlers low wickets | ||||||||
| Average 2nd innings wickets | 7.4 | Lower order batsmen more chance, opp bowlers more wickets | ||||||||
| Average 1st innings runs | 211.8 | More points from batsmen batting first | ||||||||
| Average 2nd innings runs | 189.6 | |||||||||
| If RCB bats first | If KKR bats first | |||||||||
| RCB | Worth Captain (6 hitter) | KKR | ||||||||
| AB Villers | 254 | yes | D Karthik | 185 | 1 | V Kohli fires (high probab) | C | VC | C | |
| Kohli | 300 | Yes | E Morgan | 242 | Yes | Kohli | Paddkal | E Morgan | ||
| A Finch | 192 | Yes | S Gill | 317 | Yes | Kohli | AB | |||
| D Padikkal | 328 | Yes | N Rana | 208 | Kohli | Finch | ||||
| G Mann | 28 | R Tripathi | 159 | Yes | 2 | Kohli fails (No kohli in team) | ||||
| C Morris | 103 | A Russel | 222 | Paddikal | Dube | |||||
| S Dube | 216 | Yes | S Nrine | 208 | Paddikal | S Gill | ||||
| W Sunder | 177 | P Cummins | 178 | 3 | Kohli fails (no kohli in team) | |||||
| Y Chahal | 256 | N Nagarkoti | 136 | AB Villers | Finch | |||||
| I Udana | 163 | P Krishna | 79 | AB Villers | Paddikal | |||||
| N Saini | 125 | V Chakarboty | 164 | |||||||
| Other combinations | ||||||||||
| A Finch | Paddikal | |||||||||
| A Finch | Dube | |||||||||
| A Finch | R Tripathi | |||||||||
| Paddikal | R Tripathi | |||||||||
| Paddikal | Russel | |||||||||
| Pick a few lower order six hitters from team 2 |
| https://www.iplt20.com/stats/2020/most-runs | |||||||
| BLR | Chennai | Points to note | |||||
| Aaron Finch | Ruturaj Gaikwad | – surface being particularly slow at Dubai | |||||
| Devdutt Padikkal | Faf du Plessis | – Yesterday’s match at Dubai was low scoring | |||||
| Virat Kohli | Ambati Rayudu | – Rest were 150+ | |||||
| AB de Villiers | Narayan Jagadeesan | C | VC | ||||
| Gurkeerat Singh | MS Dhoni | T1 (A) | Curren | De Villiars | |||
| Washington Sundar | Sam Curran | T2 (A) | Chahal | Tahir | |||
| Chris Morris | Ravindra Jadeja | T3 (A) | Curren | Morris | |||
| Mohammed Siraj | Deepak Chahar | T4 (A) | |||||
| Isuru Udana | Shardul Thakur | T5 (A) | M Siraj | Kohli | |||
| Navdeep Saini | Imran Tahir | T6 (A) | Kohli | Plessis | |||
| Yuzvendra Chahal | Josh Hazlewood | T7 (A) | Morris | Chahal | |||
| T8 (A) | Tahir | Jadeja | |||||
| Players in form (Bat) | T9 (A) | Jadeja | Paddikal | ||||
| Kohli | Du Plessis | T10 (A) | Kohli | Chahal | |||
| Paddikal | Watson | T11 (A) | Rayadu | Curran | |||
| DeVilliars | Rayadu | ||||||
| Finch | Jadeja | DK | |||||
| Dubey | Dhoni | T1 | Finch | Paddikal | |||
| Curren | T2 | Kolhi | Finch | ||||
| T3 | Finch | AB D | |||||
| Players in form (Bowl) | T4 | Kohli | Du Plessis | ||||
| Chahal | D Chahar | T5 | Finch | Rayadu | |||
| Morris | Curren | T6 | N Saini | Du Plessis | |||
| Udana | S Thakur | T7 | m ali | Chahal | |||
| Sunder | Bravo | T8 | Chris Morris | Curran | |||
| Siraj | T9 | Navdeep Saini | S Curran | ||||
| Saini | T10 | Bravo | Udana | ||||
| T11 | Sunder | Chahar |
| Chennai | Kolkata | Dubai | ||||||
| Last Match between 2 teams | ||||||||
| Top 10 players ffom last macth b/w teams | Last CSK match in Dubai Top 5 players | 2nd Last CSK match in Dubai Top 5 players | Last KKR Match in Dubai top 5 | Top 10 players ffom last macth b/w teams | Overall Top 10 for KKR | 2nd Last KKR Match in Dubai top 5 | Dubai ground stats from last match | |
| Curran | Curran | Watson | GIll | Tripathi | Cummins | NA | Avg. Score 170+ | |
| Plessis | Chahar | Rayadu | Morgan | Watson | Chakravarty | NA | Team batting 1st higher score | |
| Chahar | Gaikwad | Curran | Russel | Bravo | Gill | NA | 5-6 wickets per innings | |
| Jadeja | Plessis | Sharma | Rana | Curran | Morgan | NA | ||
| Watson | Rayadu | Bravo | Mavi | Thakur | Narine | NA | ||
| Dhoni | Santner | Jadeja | Nagarkoti | Dhoni | Rana | NA | ||
| Rayadu | Thakur | Varun | Sharma | Russel | NA | |||
| Thakur | narine | Mavi | NA | |||||
| Bravo | Jadeja | Ferguson | ||||||
| Chawla | Plessis | Tripathi |
| KINGS 11 | RR | Abudhabi | Last match at abu dhabi | Avg. Score 160 | ||
| Avg wickets 5 | ||||||
| Batting order | Batting order | Overall Top 5 players YTD | https://www.iplt20.com/stats/2018/player-points | |||
| M Singh | Uthappa | KINGS 11 | RR | |||
| Rahul | Stokes | |||||
| Gayle | Smith | |||||
| Pooran | Samson | Teams | ||||
| Maxwell | Butler | Team | C | VC | ||
| Hooda | Parag | 1 | M Singh | Uthappa | ||
| 2 | Rahul | Stokes | ||||
| Bowlers | Bowlers | 3 | Gayle | Smith | ||
| Shami | Archer | 4 | Uthappa | M Singh | ||
| Bishnoi | Gopal | 5 | Stokes | Rahul | ||
| Jordan | Tyagi | 6 | Smith | Gayle | ||
| Ashwin | 7 | M Singh | Shami | |||
| Maxwell | 8 | Rahul | Stokes | |||
| 9 | Gayle | Archer | ||||
| 10 | Uthappa | Archer | ||||
| 11 | Stokes | Maxwell |
| RCB VS Sunrisers | Sarjah | Sunrisers Batting order last match | Runs | RBC Last Batting order Match | |||||
| Last match avg. score 180 | Warner | 66 | Phillipe | ||||||
| Last match avg. wickets – 5 | Saha | 87 | Paddikal | ||||||
| Pandey | 44 | Kohli | |||||||
| Williamson | 11 | D Villiar | |||||||
| Shankar | Dube | ||||||||
| Samad | Morris | ||||||||
| Sandeep Sharma | 2 | Siraj | |||||||
| Rashid Khan | 3 | Chahal | |||||||
| Nataraj | 2 | ||||||||
| C | VC | ||||||||
| All openers, hence no fas bowlers | Team 1 | Paddikal | Phillepe | take other two operners | |||||
| Batting position | Top order players | Team 2 | Philliple | Warner | take other two operners | ||||
| Opener | Phillpe | in form | Team 3 | Paddikal | Saha | take other two operners | |||
| Opener | Paddikal | in form | Team 4 | Saha | Warner | take other two operners | |||
| 1 down | Kohli | Talent | Team 5 | Warner | Phillepe | take other two operners | |||
| 2 down | D VIlliar | Talent | One opener doesnt work | Team 6 | Warner | Kohli | Dont take Phillipe | ||
| Opener | Warner | in form | Team 7 | Kohli | Paddikal | Dont take Phillipe | |||
| Opener | Saha | in form | Team 8 | Kohli | Phillepe | Don’t take paddikal | |||
| 1 down | Pandey | in form | Team 9 | M Pandey | Warner | Dont take Saha | |||
| 3 down (A/R) | Morris | All rounder | Team 10 | M Pandey | Saha | Don’t take warner | |||
| 2 down | Williamson | out of form | Team 11 | ABD | Kohli | Don’t take RCB openers | |||
| Team 12 | ABD | Pandey | Don’t take warner, Saha | ||||||
| Spinner | Chahal | Team 13 | Morris | Kohli | |||||
| Spinner | Rashid Khan | Consistent | Team 14 | Williamson | Warner | Dont take Saha | |||
| Medium | S Sharma | Team 15 | W Sunder | M Pandey | Take 2 openers from either team | ||||
| Medium | Nataraj/Siraj | Team 16 | Paddikal | Chahal | |||||
| Team 17 | Philliple | Rashid Khan | |||||||
| Pace | Holder | Team 18 | Kohli | A sharma | |||||
| A/R | V shankar | Team 19 | Holder | Kohli | |||||
| Pace | Steyn | Team 20 | V Shanker | Paddk | |||||
| A/R | W Sunder | Team 21 | Holder | Kohli | |||||
| Team 22 | Pandey | Morris |
| Dubai | ||||||
| SRH | DC | C | VC | |||
| D Warner | A Carey | Team 1 | D Warner | M Pandey | Low risk | |
| M Pandey | S Iyer | Team 2 | D Warner | Dhawan | ||
| K Williamson | Dhawan | Team 3 | M Pandey | S Iyer | ||
| P Garg | P Shaw | Team 4 | M Pandey | Dhawan | ||
| J Holder | Hetmeyer | Team 5 | S Iyer | Willamson | ||
| V Shanker | A rahane | Team 6 | Dhawan | Willamson | ||
| A Samad | M Stonis | Team 7 | Williamson | Warner | ||
| Rashid Khan | A Patel | Team 8 | Stonis | Pandey | ||
| T Natrajan | Rabada | Team 9 | Rabada | S Iyer | ||
| S Sharma | R Ashwin | Team 10 | S Iyer | Dhawan | ||
| S Nadeem | A Nortje | Team 11 | Dhawan | S Iyer | ||
| Bairstorw | T Deshpandey | Team 12 | Rahane | Rashid Khan | High risk | |
| Team 13 | Stonis | Rashid Khan | ||||
| Kedhar Jadhav | Team 14 | Nortje | Stoinis | |||
| Team 15 | Shanker | R Pant | ||||
| Team 16 | Rabada | Rashid Khan | ||||
| Team 17 | Williamson | Hetmeyer | ||||
| Team 18 | Pandey | R Ashwin | ||||
| Team 19 | P Shaw | Dhawan | ||||
| Team 20 | Nortje | A carey/R Pant |
| C | VC | ||||||||
| RR | MI | Team 1 | S Samson | Q Cock | All rounders | Spinners | |||
| S Samson | Q Cock | Team 2 | J Butler | S Yadav | Last match 1 | Archer gets S Smith out | All rounders | Lower order batsmen | |
| J Butler | I Kishan | Team 3 | J Butler | Bumrah | Last match rank 2 | Bumrah gets S Smith out | All rounders | Lower order batsmen | |
| S Smith | S Yadav | Team 4 | S Smith | Q Cock | |||||
| R Uthappa | H Pandya | Team 5 | R Uthappa | T boult | |||||
| R Parag | S Tiwary | Team 6 | J Archer | T Boult | Top pacers of opposite teams | ||||
| B Stokes | Pollard | Team 7 | J Archer | Bumarh | Top pacers of opposite teams | ||||
| R Tewatia | K Pandya | Team 8 | S Samson | Butler | RR top order batsmen (if RR bats first) | ||||
| J Archer | T Boult | Team 9 | J Archer | Q Cock | |||||
| T Curran | Bumrah | Team 10 | T Boult | Q Cock | |||||
| S Gopal | R Chahar | Team 11 | T Boult | S Yadav | |||||
| K Tyagi | Pattinson | Team 12 | T Boult | R Uthappa | |||||
| J Udankat | Coulter Nile | Team 13 | Bumrah | Archer | Last match | ||||
| Team 14 | Bumrah | Q Cock | |||||||
| Team 15 | Bumrah | S Smith | |||||||
| Game changers | Team 16 | Pollard | Samson | ||||||
| Last innings | Level | Team 17 | Pollard | J Archer | |||||
| Surya Yadav | Captain | Team 18 | Hardik Pandya | J Archer | |||||
| Hardik Pandya | VC | Team 19 | Q Cock | T Boult | |||||
| Butler | Captain | Team 20 | Q Cock | Ishan Kishan | |||||
| Bumrah | Captain | Team 21 | S Smith | B Stokes | |||||
| Archer | VC | Team 22 | Ben Stokes | J Butler | |||||
| Boult | VC | ||||||||
| Pattinson | VC | J Butler | Archer | ||||||
| S Gopal | VC | J Butler | Pattinson | ||||||
| J Butler | Surya yadav | ||||||||
| Bumrah | Surya yadav | ||||||||
| Butler | S Gopal |
| Sharjah (Short boundaries) | Expected score | 170-200 | Factors | Small Ground, more sixes, team batting first wins, higher order batsmen of team 1, lower order of team 2, six hitters | |||||||
| Expected winner points | 700+ | ||||||||||
| DC | CSK | Sharjah | High Scoring | ||||||||
| M Dhoni | |||||||||||
| A Carey | Plessis | Teams | |||||||||
| S Iyer | Watson | Captain | VC | C | VC | ||||||
| Dhawan | A Rayadu | Team Batting first (Higher order) | S Iyer | Dhawan | P Shaw | ||||||
| P Shaw | S Curran | Team batting 2nd (lower order) | Dhawan | Rahane | P Shaw | Dhawan | |||||
| Hetmeyer | R Jadeja | Shaw | Dhawan | Watson | |||||||
| A rahane | D Bravo | 6 hitters | Openers | Hetmeyer | Watson | P Shaw | |||||
| M Stonis | S Thakur | R Pant | P Shaw | Rahane | Dhawan | Iyer | |||||
| A Patel | D Chahar | S Iyer | Dhawan | Rabada (low chance) | Iyer | Watson | |||||
| Rabada | P Chawla | Dhawan | Rayadu | Plessis | Iyer | P Shaw | |||||
| R Ashwin | K Sharma | Stonis | Plessis | Watson | Watson | Iyer | |||||
| A Nortje | Plessis | Rayadu | Plessis | Watson | |||||||
| T Deshpandey | Watson | Rahane | Plessis | Dhawan | |||||||
| R Jadeja | Plessis | Shaw | |||||||||
| Kedhar Jadhav | Plesssis | Iyer | |||||||||
| Assume one of the openers doesnt work | Rayadu | Plessis | |||||||||
| Team 1 | Dhawan | Stonis | Watson | ||||||||
| P Shaw | |||||||||||
| Rayadu | s curram | ||||||||||
| Plessis | rahane | ||||||||||
| S Watson | F Plessis | T1 | |||||||||
| S Watson | Curran | T2 | |||||||||
| Rahane | Stoinis | T3 | |||||||||
| Iyer | Stoinis | T4 | |||||||||
| Curren | F Plessis | T5 | |||||||||
| Plessis | Dhawan | T6 | |||||||||
| Shaw | Bravo | T7 | |||||||||
| Rabada | Jadeja | T8 | |||||||||
| Curran | Iyer | T9 | |||||||||
| Rabada | Rahane | T10 | |||||||||
| Dhawan | Dhoni | T11 |
Upcoming IPL matches: CSK Vs KXIP and KKR Vs RR
