IPL Fantasy Faceoff

Post toss, RR won and chose to bowl naturally. Last season this game exceeded 500 runs with Ishan, Deshpande and Head being the stars. Jaydev is not playing but I already had him from last SRH game so I need to decide who to replace him with even though I have no budget and it costs another transfer. To adjust for this I messed with the team a little, here's the new one where I also made Ishan Cap. Costs 1 extra transfer. Swapped Jaydev for Praful Hinge but I also wanted to bring in Deshpande so I replaced Dubey with Shivang (no extra transfers used) and then swapped Sandeep, who I didn't have the most confidence in with Deshpande. So the big day is finally here! Quickly going over last game bit disappointing with how many points were on the table and I avoided it ALL with Padikkal who didn't face a single ball. Kohli did great as expected but the Rajat/Padikkal 50/50 went about as bad as possible.

This game I already have Ishan, Vaibhav, NKR, Abhishek and Jaydev as I'd planned ahead and so I'll make the remaining 6 transfers to complete the team. Of course I want more SRH players as I'll be keeping them until their next match against CSK to use the IW booster again. About that in the following days I was debating whether to use the IW or 2x but the only OS picks I'd only take are Head, Klaasen and Archer which isn't that many so I decided the save the more powerful 2x likely until that LSG vs CSK repeat.

So now I have 6 slots, need all Indians if possible and 54cr to spend. Need atleast 2 batters and bowlers. Choosing to do the necessary ones first, for the batters it was quite easy as I had no options. Vaibhav already in, Jaiswal is a great pick and the last 2 players in the 11 were OS, Head and Hetmyer and Head is the easy choice. That was the only OS player I would end up picking. Of bowlers Bishnoi was the obvious pick but the last slot avoiding Archer/Burger, was Sandeep or Harshal. Harshal was GREAT for SRH last year but toothless in 2026 so Sandeep it will be. Now with not many stars left Jurel has been excellent, bonus points for wearing the gloves too so he's a natural pick. Leaving just 8.5cr for the last pick who I think could either be Shivang or Dubey. Dubey has taken a wicket every game but Shivang took 3 last game. Both tend to only score a handful of runs at most. I'm going with Dubey but both are solid choices. That completes the team, 6 transfers used, with only Head as an OS player I'll definitely go ahead with the Indian Warriors boost. Now a big decision is the Captain and Vice Cap. The obvious choices are Ishan, Abhi, Vaibhav and Jaiswal but between them it's quite tough. If you think SRH's batting will crumble which is possible Bishnoi could also make a good VC. But I'll go Abhishek Cap and Jaiswal VC. Ishan has been more consistent but Abhishek could be a great differential. Vaibhav is the most chosen C/VC this match but I'll go Jaiswal as he's more reliable in general despite Vaibhav being the top scorer so far. The team should be exactly the same after toss except for injuries but the C/VC could change for sure.

Weather shows no rain thankfully so plans should go ahead smoothly.

Here's the full team:

I Kishan | WK D Jurel | WK

T Head | BAT OS Y Jaiswal | BAT VICE CAP V Sooryavanshi | BAT

H Dubey | AR A Sharma | AR CAP N Reddy | AR

R Bishnoi | BOWL S Sharma | BOWL J Unadkat | BOWL

I haven't used as many transfers as others but my points have still been lacklustre so far and this is definitely my best chance to turn it around. Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon after the toss!