We’ve gone through the outright and the top batsman markets for the new Indian Premier League season so there is just enough time to get stuck into the betting potential for the bowlers. As with the batsmen, there are some very good bowlers on show here too, to make for a competitive heat.
Andrew Tye lived up to the billing last season when he ran away with the purple cap last season and the Kings XI Punjab will be hoping that he can have another big campaign this time around. World class bowlers are everywhere you look in this field though.
Recent Winners
2018 – Andrew Tye
2017 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar
2016 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar
2015 – Dwayne Bravo
2014 – Mohit Sharma
2013 – Dwayne Bravo
2012 – Morne Morkel
2011 – Lasith Malinga
2010 – Pragyan Ojha
2009 – RP Singh
Overview
The last eight winners of the purple cap have now been seamers which on these wickets is pretty incredible but it is clearly a sign for what to look for with our bets here. As with the batting market, the recent winners have all ben elite bowlers who have accuracy but good variation to their offering that have gone well. So that is the criteria we are looking for in many ways.
Market Leaders
Rashid Khan is the 8/1 favourite to be the leading wicket taker in the tournament. We have got to the stage in franchise cricket however where teams are happy to sit on him and play him out rather than go bonkers and gift him wickets. That said, Rashid is good enough to counter that but that is enough to put me off him at a single figure price, especially with his first World Cup beginning not long after this.
Jasprit Bumrah comes next at 16/1 alongside Andrew Tye. Tye obviously defends the purple cap this year while Bumrah ran fairly well last year in a disappointing campaign in the end for the Mumbai Indians. Tye could well be in Australia’s World Cup party which would be a concern for me here and I suspect Bumrah could be managed towards the end of the tournament as well.
Kuldeep Yadav is an 18/1 shot to take the most wickets this term. He was in the mix last year in a good season for the Kolkata Knight Riders taking 17 wickets in his 16 games. My only real issue would be whether he has improved here. I would want him to have done that if I’m betting on him at a relatively skinny price. I believe Kolkata’s attack is better this year too which is another concern.
There is a trio of bowlers at 20/1. Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Dwayne Bravo are those three men and I can’t say any of them stand out to me. Chahal doesn’t bowl at the right parts of the innings while Bravo looks a busted flush with the ball now. Kumar would rate the best chance but the Sunrisers have a superb attack who are likely to share the wickets out. It is 25/1 bar.
Profile
We have a couple of decisions to make when we form out bet on this market. The first one is naturally whether to take a spinner or a seamer. Seam has traditionally been the way forward in recent times but I wonder if spin will play a part here with plenty of chopping and changing going on throughout the course of the season. The other thing to choose is overseas bowler or Indian one. We must make sure we are on someone around for the whole season and preferably someone who will make the play-offs to get the extra matches from that.
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Betting
I was going to stick Lungi Ngidi in my staking plan for this market but he was ruled out early enough so I’m left with two with the first being Sandeep Lamichhane whose mystery can serve him well. We saw in the Big Bash how well he is capable of going in this tournament and given that I fancy the Capitals for a big campaign it makes sense to be on one of their bowlers here. He’s been going well enough in the Pakistan Super League recently and took his five wickets last year at a strike rate of 14.4 balls. That is around an average of two wickets a match which gives him 25+ wickets which makes him competitive. I think he’s a better bowler now and is still unknown enough to be effective here. He’s my main pick at 25s.
One man who caught my eye last season was Prasidh Krishna. He only played seven matches for the Knight Riders last season but he took 10 wickets in that time and should have improved for the run since then. Seven games is half the season so if you double his wicket haul he is on 20 wickets which is a number that has you very competitive in this competition. KKR are not blessed with a huge amount of seamers so I’m fairly certain that Krishna will get plenty of game time. If Andre Russell gets injured he may even see the ball at the death. At 100/1 he feels worth a small go.
Tips
Back S.Lamichhane Top Bowler (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Coral (1/4 1-4)
Back him here:
Back P.Krishna Top Bowler (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-4)
Back him here:
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