IPL Fantasy Faceoff

Here is my team for the game: Bethell is just an impact player so swapped for Salil Arora.

Here is the best team if you play the Indian Warriors booster: Must have 3 batsmen and Padikkal was an IP so swapped for Tim David despite being an OS player unfortunately. Venkatesh Iyer is also an IP so was swapped for NKR. Ansari is not playing at all and so was swapped for Abhinandan Singh as I didn't have the budget for Suyash Sharma and no time to rearrange everyone.

Here is the confirmed 11:

Overall this first game shows how important it is to wait for the lineups to release and reupdate your teams or you'll be leaving many points on the table. The rest is the original post.

I unfortunately will not being playing Finn Allen. I heard everyone's comments and went through many potential lineups and had to come to this tough decision. I do still believe he's a player to watch and at only 7cr is a steal. But I just can't confirm he'll play which is the difficulty with the season opening games. If he plays this first game I can almost guarantee I'll pick him next time, but I had to pick another player from the MI vs KKR match with just 8.5cr. I had options like Ramandeep and Ashwani who I also couldn't be confident would play which meant I would have to sell a pricier asset to get 2 average players. So I figured I would sell Ishan, Krunal or Bumrah to get the necessary funds which was a very difficult choice. But Krunal is an all-rounder and Ishan is in incredible form right now so I decided to drop Bumrah who's 11cr. This could be a major decision I end up regretting but it's what I'll go with. Now left me with 19.5cr and 1 OS slot to pick 2 players from the KKR vs MI game with Cameron already in my team. I had to pick atleast 1 bowler to meet the minimum but this still left we with way more choices than I can list here but I'll try.

Boult and Rinku/Naman is a very valid option with Rinku's consistency over the years as a finisher and Dhir's significant potential but I still felt I could do better even though Boult is definitely one of the best bowlers. If I took Varun I'd have also have 9.5cr left like with Boult but now I'd have an OS slot allowing me to choose between the previously mentioned but also the likes of De Kock/Rickelton but I once again can't definitely say which of those would be their keeper but it's likely Rickelton based on my research. Or I take Santner, a very dangerous spinner in Wankhede and might also get a chance to have a bit of a whack. The final option was Deepak and Tilak which is perfectly valid with Tilak's reliable power hitting and Deepak's valuable bowling. ANY of these would be valid including the original Bumrah, Allen combo but this early in the season I just want reliable points and of these duos Varun and Santner spoke to me. Even then Santner isn't 100% to play but I just can't overlook these very impressive bowlers getting a go in a favourable ground and the fact that I can be confident they'll play unlike some of the younger or less established players.

So theoretically my team for the games after SRH vs RCB are now locked in unfortunately with just 0.5cr left as a buffer but that's to be expected when players cost this much and the purse is this tight. Ideally no changes will be needed and I can play this exact team but you never know. I won't be making another post after toss and will just be editing this one at the top (probably) with a few notes and the final team image. Thanks for reading and good luck to everyone! I'll see you after the toss...