How to choose the best captain and vice-captain for a fantasy cricket team

Fantasy cricket is a game of skill and strategy. Like IPL, the process of winning starts at choosing the right team in the first place. In fantasy cricket, you have the advantage of creating the best team out of the competing teams. The captain of the team gets double the points so he is not just another player on your team. The vice-captain gets 1.5x times the points scored and hence another very important decision to make.

So, let’s look at how to choose the captain and the vice-captain in the best possible way.

As suggested in our previous article on tips and tricks for fantasy cricket, choose the fantasy cricket apps that give you the most flexibility esp. those that let you choose a team after the toss. Once you have chosen the right app to create your fantasy team, follow the tips given below to choose the best captain and vice-captain for a fantasy cricket team.

The first rule to choose the best captain and vice-captain for your fantasy cricket team

First of all, you should know that the game isn’t the same always and your strategy depends on many factors. Most of all, you are not looking at choosing just the captain but also a vice-captain which makes the decision tougher.

So the most important strategy is to avoid a conflict, meaning not to choose 2 players who are going to outplay each other as captain and vice-captain. You are looking for players who can complement each other and not take each other out compromising your points.

A great bowler and a batsman in form might sound like a good choice, however, if they have a good track record against each other then that strategy is going to blow over. There won’t be many scenarios where you won’t end up losing points on one of the two.

Strong team against a weak team

Against a weak team, it is prudent to choose a top-order batsman in form or a good wicket-taking bowler. Since one team is weaker it is most likely that the bowlers will take the wickets quickly and/or the top-order batsmen will play through most of the overs and score big. In this scenario, the middle-order batsmen might not get to bat enough overs so it is best to stay away from the middle-order batsmen.

This might be the only scenario where you can consider choosing the captain and the vice-captain from the same team. However, remember not to choose middle-order batsmen or all-rounders. Just go for top-order batsmen and/or wicket-taking bowlers.

Between two strong teams

When playing fantasy cricket you don’t need to worry about the outcome of the game but only about how the points are going to stack against each of the players.

When two strong teams are playing then choosing a captain/vice-captain out of the all-rounders is the best choice. Look for an all-rounder who walks down the pitch early and gets to bowl his entire quota of overs. Additionally, the player should have a track record of taking wickets as well and not just bowling.

While you may be tempted at picking up star openers like Rohit Sharma, Aaron Finch, Jason Roy, Chris Gayle, etc as captain or vice-captain but remember that they aren’t very consistent. Hence, if you want to go for them keep the pitch conditions, the opposition team, etc in mind.

If you are running out of points to buy top all-rounders then you may go for good consistent middle-order batsmen with a good strike rate. If the batsman has some bowling skills then that’s a bonus.

Other important tips

Most fantasy cricket players are too focused on the batsmen, however, with the right conditions, a good bowler can get you more points than any batsman. Bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Lasith Malinga, etc are known game-changers and that means a lot of wicket points.

Wicket keepers who can bat well also make a good choice as vice-captain. For example, KL Rahul (despite his poor performance recently during the India-England T20 series) has a great track record in IPL. He can be a game-changer.

Another rising star is Rishabh Pant who has been making big waves recently. Apart from his wicket-keeping skills, Pant has been exceptionally good with the bat scoring big in past few games. Other than these 2, MSD is an all-time favorite as a captain.

As I said earlier, it is important to have a captain and a vice-captain who can complement each other and not cancel out each other. If you are running out of points to buy a good bowler as a vice-captain then you can actually opt for a wicket-keeper from the team where the bowlers are more likely to get the batsmen caught behind.

Remember that a caught behind wicket is an opportunity to get points from a bowler as well as a wicketkeeper.

Look for the pitch and weather conditions, read about it and understand which bowlers and batsmen are going to get an advantage out of it. For example, if the pitch is supposed to give an edge to spinners then Piyush Chawla or Harbhajan Singh might be a good choice. If the ball is going to get some swing then Malinga or Bumrah can be a good choice as a captain or a vice-captain.

Lastly, when you have to make a choice between 2 good batsmen with equally good strike rate and averages, you may look at their usual field positions. Looking at catch records is something that most players overlook. Catches don’t just win matches, most fantasy cricket apps give additional points for catches, for example, Dream11 gives 8 points for each catch and additional 12 points for 3 catches in a match.

We hope that you would make good use of these tips and play better than others. Do let us know in the comments if you liked our suggestions, we’d love to hear from you.

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