Ahead of the new Indian Premier League season beginning there is just enough time to delve into the top batsman market for the tournament, one which is always popular with so many of the leading hitters in the world in action over the next couple of months.
We don’t know who will top score over the season but the one thing we are certain of is that there will be a real competitive heat in the race to win the Orange Cup which is awarded to the top scorer in the tournament.
Recent Winners
2020 – KL Rahul
2019 – Dave Warner
2018 – Kane Williamson
2017 – Dave Warner
2016 – Virat Kohli
2015 – Dave Warner
2014 – Robin Uthappa
2013 – Michael Hussey
2012 – Chris Gayle
2011 – Chris Gayle
Market Leaders
As ever it is Virat Kohli who is the market leader to be the top batsman this season. It is quite amazing that he has only been the Orange Cap winner once in his career. It isn’t as though Bangalore haven’t been making the play-offs either. He hinted during the India vs England limited overs series that he could be opening the batting for Royal Challengers Bangalore this season so in theory that would really boost his chances. Kohli could only finish ninth last season and I’m always reluctant to get involved in a captain in this format.
KL Rahul was the winner of the Prange Cap last season and he is 8/1 to keep hold of the award. Once again I’m reluctant to get involved in backing captains, especially ones which could be keeping wicket and while he is a class act, there were times in the matches against England where he looked all at sea. He does have an advantage in terms of the grounds that he is playing on and while I wouldn’t be surprised if he top scores again, he’s a little on the short side for me.
David Warner has a wonderful record of top scoring in odd years so there could be plenty of interest in him this season. He starts out as a 10/1 shot to regain the Orange Cap that he won in 2015, 2017 and 2019 but playing nine of his matches in Delhi and Chennai might not help matters. He is yet another captain though and I’m reluctant to get involved in them. The Sunrisers combination will be interesting too with Jason Roy in their ranks as well. The last thing I’d want is to be on Warner at 10s and he starts coming in at four or five.
The Indian opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are next in the betting at 12/1. The fact that Sharma doesn’t always open for the Mumbai Indians is a bit of a dampener for his chances, as is the fact that he too will spend nine matches in Chennai and Delhi, statistically the lowest scoring of the six grounds that are in use this season. If I was convinced Dhawan would open throughout the season he might be of more interest but Delhi could easily open with Marcus Stoinis and Prithvi Shaw which would be a concern.
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Profile
We need to whittle the field down. There are over 50 batsmen who are going to play regularly in this tournament and we can’t be backing all of them so let us apply some filters to try and get it to a more manageable level. Clearly the first thing we can do is look at players who will play more matches at higher scoring grounds or smaller ones such as Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. There isn’t a single team that play no matches in Chennai and Delhi but the Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings only play two there and Kolkata Knight Riders just three. This isn’t an exact science but it could help to whittle the field down.
Once we’ve done that we can further chop the field down by looking at batting position. I wouldn’t want to be backing anyone not in the top four but preferably it would be an opening batsman. The other thing is he must be able to play spin. Matches are being played in clumps on each ground so the wickets will tire as we get towards the end of the span of games at a venue, especially ones which have slightly more matches than others so playing spin is crucial.
Betting
I’m going to go for a couple of outsiders here. I don’t really want to bet big on the market anyway with Covid the way it is in India but Nitish Rana and Nicholas Pooran look attractive enough prices to me to back. Both men made more than 350 runs last season and both should benefit from being back in India and playing on the smaller grounds. Rana plays for Kolkata and Pooran for Punjab. Both those sides have five matches on the tiny Bangalore ground and four at Ahmedabad which didn’t look much bigger in the T20 series between India and England.
Rana has been in pretty good form for Delhi in the domestic competitions earlier this year and he looks likely to bat at three for the Knight Riders. He can play those rebuild or play himself in then explode innings but he can also go from the off too so I like him to have a big season. There aren’t many grounds in world cricket that can contain Pooran and the ones he will be playing on certainly can’t. In a Punjab side that no longer has Maxwell in it, he could be the man to launch the fireworks and score big.
Tips
Back N.Rana Top Season Batsman (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-5)
Back N.Pooran Top Season Batsman (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 51.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-5)
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