How to make teams for T10 leagues

Every person in today’s world has a special love for a fantasy sports game, be it for pure entertainment terms or wanting to earn cash. While there's no one surefire way to win your league, there are certain things you can do to at least ensure that you're putting yourself in a position to win. And that's really half the battle. Depending on the rules of your specific league, certain strategies apply more than others. However, tactics and strategies differ in every scenario. In terms of cricket, team selection differs as per which format of the game is played. With the emergence of T20 matches over the years, we now see a new shorter format in the form of T10 games being played. This blog aims at helping you to form your fantasy team for a T10 match.

• The base structure of the team plays a very important role in determining how successful the team would be and how many points it would yield. T10 being a very short format with only 10 over being played, it becomes crucial selecting the players who are expected to get maximum participation during the match.

• Selecting the openers from both the teams in a way becomes a must as they are expected to face maximum deliveries. Similarly, number three from both the teams can be chosen over similar lines. Big hitters and explosive batsmen play an important role in determining the score of the team batting first and inclusion of such players would not hurt the cause as well.

• Try and pick bowlers bowling at the death. Surely, this doesn’t mean guaranteed points, but the chances of them picking wickets are high as the batsmen at the death slog in search of boundaries on every delivery. Check for the pitch report and try to select the bowlers suiting to the bowling conditions.

• Nothing better than a batting all-rounder who bowls regularly. A must in the team. As it is a very short format, try and research finding out players who can give maximum contributions to their teams, be it bat, ball or field.

• Captaincy and vice-captaincy are usually seen as a luck factor but not always if you have good research behind your back. An all-rounder batting up the order coupled with getting his two bowling overs is a no brainer for captaincy. However, when that’s not the case, an opening batsman as a captain could bear ripe fruits as theoretically, he has ten overs to perform under his belt. This doesn’t mean a bowler can’t pick 4-5 wickets in two overs and is not suitable for captaincy. However, the chances of this happening are considerably lower than an opening batsman scoring 60-70 runs.

• Don’t put all eggs in one basket. It is always advisable to go with a 6-5 combination to have equal talents and potential from both teams. Keep your team flexible in seeking points from all departments.

• If you’re playing in small leagues, as much it is important to select popular players who do well, it’s also vital to have some ‘out-of-the-box’ picks to enhance the rankings, else everyone will end up having the same teams. Also, research on match details, history, pitch conditions, weather reports and form of the players is crucial before the formation of a team.

• Although very general and cliché advice, but go with your gut. This might in a way contradict with the previous point, however, if you’re confident about a player doing well based on his history, go for it. Intuitions play an important role as well as; after all, this game is somewhat about luck.

These are some tips and tricks on how you can smartly make a well-structured team in T10 leagues. Hope this article helps you with your decision making. Cheers.