IPL is on its tail end at the moment and no team has so far secured its place in the top half. No team has 16 points, the least amount to secure a top 4 finish, yet. Mumbai Indians had a chance to do it against Rajasthan Royals in the 45th match but a century from Ben Stokes shattered their hopes. A fight like this has never been seen in the past IPLs. There is still a chance for every team to reach the top. With just 11 matches left, this stretch could be very entertaining for the fans. The next match is between Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings Eleven Punjab, two teams sitting at 4th and 5th respectively. It will be played in Sharjah a ground know to get big scores. Let us look at their recent performance and try to predict a good Dream11 team.
Kolkata Knight Riders
This year has not been a good season for the Kolkata based franchise. With a mid-season captain change, KKR expected the ship to be steadied, that, however, has not been the case for them. KKR lost the first game itself that Morgan captained in. So far they have lost two out of 3 games that he has played as captain. Their defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore was the worst defeat in years. They have recovered from that defeat with a resounding win against Delhi Capitals and now look to book a place in the top 4.
Kings XI Punjab
Punjab has had a very interesting season. They looked really sharp at the start with some great games and then settled into their mediocrity again. We thought that was that and we wouldn’t see them doing anything different from the years of the past. Then suddenly something changed and they defeated the top 3 teams on the points table. They had won just 1 of the first 7 games played but now with 4 wins on the trot, they are truly the most in-form team of this IPL at the moment.
Dream 11 Prediction
KL Rahul should be the first name of your team sheet. He has been the most consistent player on this IPL amassing a total of 821 points so far. Mayank Agrawal is another player who has been on the Dream Team in every match he has played so far. He was out injured in the last match but if he plays, you cannot opt him out. Chris Gayle did not play the first 7 matches for KXIP and they won just 1 from those games. Now that he is playing again, KXIP have not lost a single match he has played in. He has also been consistently included in the Dream Team for all the matches he has played so far. Nitish Rana had a disappointing IPL this year, not managing to achieve what’s expected of him. A great knock of 81 in the last match could mark a turnaround for his IPL season. Eoin Morgan is now the captain of KKR after Dinesh Karthik decided to step down. He has done a decent job as a batsman so far. Although he doesn’t have many balls to play coming at 4th, he makes some quickfire 20s which gets him enough points to be included in the Dream Team. He is a sure shot points earner for the Dream 11 but not a captain material since he doesn’t play many balls. Nicholas Pooran, the West Indian southpaw is in great touch at the moment. Capable of winning games on his own, Pooran deserves a slot in your Dream 11 fantasy team.
Varun Chakravarthy has been a revelation for the KKR this year. In the last match, he took 5 wickets against a good Delhi side. He has become the first bowler to take a fifer in this year’s IPL He should be among the first names on your team sheet. Mohammad Shami often goes under the radar and is often shadowed by Jaspreet Bumrah, but stats show he is equally impressive if not better than the Mumbai Indians bowler. Shami has been quickest to take the last 100 wickets in ODIs and is among the top wickets takers in this year’s IPL as well. M Ashwin is another bowler that flies under the radar quite often. He has earned 252 points from just 6 games that he has played so far. He is sure to get a wicket and is also has a high chance to take catches as he fields on the boundary line. You can expect 20-40 points which does not make him the captain material but its the surety of points that get him into the Dream 11 team. Chris Jordan is a good bowler and a decent lower-order batsman, one area of his game that is usually overseen is his fielding. Stats show that he is among the very best fielders in modern-day cricket. He rarely misses a catch, something that cannot be said even for Jadeja. Arshdeep Singh could be the find of IPL 2020. Currently, team India is in a dire need of a left-arm fast bowler. The search has been ongoing ever since Zaheer Khan retired with no success. This is where Arshdeep Singh comes into the picture. The technically gifted 20-year-old has been supporting Shami quite well by giving the team a very good option against Right-handed batsmen. Ravi Bishnoi has played every match for KXIP so far but hasn’t performed quite consistently as they would’ve expected. If he plays well he is sure to get more than 40 points but his bad games often result in 4 odd points. He could be used as a wildcard.
Captain/ Vice Captain
Selection of a captain and Vice caption could potentially win you the Dream 11. These are the two most important positions in the Dream 11 or any other game such as My 11 circle or Paytm Fantasy Cricket. There are many players from KKR and KXIP that could be chosen for the captain and vice-captain roles. Players like KL Rahul and Chris Gayle are capable of scoring very big which translates to very high points on Dream11. Pooran, Shami and Chakravarthy are also good vice-captain options as they’re quite consistent in getting points.
Wildcard
Sunil Narine is a very inconsistent player at the moment. He is not taking any wickets but often gets chances to score runs. He also bowls his full quota of overs. He has the potential to get the highest number of points in a match but often squanders his chances. If you’re making more than 5 teams, you should certainly take a chance on Narine and make him a captain or vice-captain as that could be the difference between winning and losing. Maxwell is another such option to take. Someone who is not playing well since the past couple of games but has the potential to win games on his own. This game is going to be played on Sharjah,a small ground something that could be an advantage for Maxwell.
