Fantasy cricket and eSports are the new crazes of the new generation. While eSports have their own fans around the world and dedicated sports channels for them, fantasy cricket, on the other hand, is played via websites such as sportsadda.com and other online gaming zones/arenas.

Fantasy sports players simply need to decide which virtual teams they want to see play against each other and then build them up. They have to select players from a list of real cricketers and place them in the team according to their abilities. The batting order line up is as important as selecting the best bowlers. Listed below are a few tips and tricks for fantasy cricket fans to consider when they are building their teams online.

Player’s Current Form Versus Past Performance

The first aspect to keep in mind while building up your online team of players is to gauge them on the basis of their current form and not really on their past performances. A player’s historic performance may be good enough to convince you as a fantasy player to keep them in your team. However, if they are currently in a bad form, they might not be able to perform on the field as expected. Thus not only you will be disappointed but also frustrated at your selection.

The Pitch

The second most important factor to be taken care of is that as a fantasy cricket fan and regular player you must have an understanding of how different pitches behave. This does not imply that you go around the world checking every pitch out. However, it does imply the fact that you need to read up and educate yourself about how pitches around the world behave and which pitch is suitable for building what kind of team.

A team with a lesser number of bowlers and more batsmen would be ideal for a flat pitch, but for a bouncy pitch, it would be good to keep more bowlers in your team. Why? Because a flat pitch is considered ideal for batsmen to perform on and a bouncy pitch is more suitable for bowlers.

Thus, the knowledge about pitch performance is crucial for you to select the right players for your fantasy cricket match or you will end up building up a team of players who might not be able to deliver the results you desire.

The Point System

Fantasy cricket is an online sport which is based on a point system. These points can be scored in multiple ways which include; selection of the right captain and vice-captain, taking catches, good fielding, hitting the boundaries, taking wickets, delivering maiden overs, and scoring 50’s. Your understanding of the point system to emerge as a strong fantasy cricket team is very important. Once you get the hang of it, you must try to score as many points as you can.

The Rightly Mixed Team

One of the core aspects of building the right team includes taking players from all spheres of experience levels, from the most experienced ones to just the beginners. This helps in building a team that has a good sportsman spirit and delivers just the right mix of players needed on the field. Additionally, it is better to hire inexperienced youngsters who are passionate to play alongside their experienced counterparts than to hire underperforming older players with more experience and a high fee rate.

Placing The Uncapped Players

While you are building up your virtual team with real players in the fantasy gaming zone, you will be required to keep an uncapped player in your team. An uncapped player is a cricketer who has played matches on a domestic level only and still has to experience playing on an intentional level for their country. Since these players have no experience of playing international grounds and pitches, they need to be placed strategically in the team. The ideal spot for them is to be placed at either the wicket-keeping spot or given middle overs to be bowled.

The selection of uncapped players should be done wisely. Though they are not yet experienced internationally, you must select the best one available so that when the time comes, they are able to perform under pressure.

The Captain and the Vice-Captain

This is an important point to consider when you are selecting your team. Remember, your captain will be leading the team in the ground with the help of his partner in this deal – the vice-captain. Both of them will be making decisions and choosing the game strategy. Their performance will highly contribute to the team’s morale and point scoring as well. The selection of a good captain carries 2x points whereas a good vice-captain carries 1.5x points.

The Batting Order

When you have selected your team of players, the next thing you need to do will be placing the batsmen in the right batting order wisely. This includes; selecting the openers, the tail-enders, and the middle batting order. The opening duo usually consists of batsmen who can stay on the pitch for longer periods of time while getting the most runs out of it. Hence if the top 2-4 batsmen end up scoring a good amount of runs for the team and secure the pitch for a longer period of time, it puts the rest of team out of pressure.

Similarly, the middle order batsmen usually consists of players who are hard hitters and can bring stability to the team in case of fast and unpredictable dismissals of the top batting order. The tail ending batting order usually consists of inexperienced players and/or players who are good at bowling and not so good at the batting skill. Thus, while selecting the batting order of your team, analyze each player’s skillset in terms of their batting capabilities on the pitch and their performance under pressure and then assign them the spots.

The Bowlers

Just like you need to place the batsmen at their right spot, you also need to assign overs to your bowlers strategically and wisely. From Strike bowlers to Death bowlers, you need to be sure that you pick the right mix and introduce them at the exact times when your team needs them in the match.

Making Adjustments

Since Fantasy Cricket is an online sport, it comes with its own benefits. You can almost always make changes to your team at the last moments too. So keep your eyes and ears open for any changes in the performance of your already selected players’ performances and adjust accordingly.

Measure Your Team’s Performance

Last but not least, you must always measure your team’s online performance up against the real-time statistics. Find out the reasons why your team’s performance was not up to the mark expected and then adopt future strategies.