The new season of the Indian Premier League gets underway on Saturday but before the big kick off we have enough time to look at some of the season long markets for the tournament. Here we will cover the top batter market.
Virat Kohli was once again the top batter last season and off the back of a very good Champions Trophy it would be no surprise if he retains the Orange Cap but there are some huge names lining up to look to top score for the season themselves.
Recent Winners
2024 – Virat Kohli
2023 – Shubman Gill
2022 – Jos Buttler
2021 – Ruturaj Gaikwad
2020 – KL Rahul
2019 – Dave Warner
2018 – Kane Williamson
2017 – Dave Warner
2016 – Virat Kohli
2015 – Dave Warner
Market Leaders
Shubman Gill was another who had a big Champions Trophy tournament and the 2023 Orange Cap winner is actually the 10/1 favourite to get the honour back this time around. If Gujarat are going to do anything this season then they will need him to come up with the goods with the bat but I’ve said it before whenever I’ve previewed T20 tournaments that I don’t like backing captains because although they are often the best player on the team these T20 games get frantic and can clutter any mind when batting.
Virat Kohli is 12/1 to keep hold of the Orange Cap this season. He showed he isn’t a fading force at the Champions Trophy and of course he’ll play half of his matches at the Chinnaswamy this season which is obviously a bonus because it is a good batting pitch and tiny boundaries. You would imagine if Kohli doesn’t pick up an injury at any stage in the tournament then he’ll go very close but it will be interesting to see if he performs for the whole season because India have a huge Test series in England not long after this season.
We have a quartet of players who are 14/1 this season. Travis Head was fourth highest run scorer last season while Ruturaj Gaikwal was the Orange Cap winner in 2021 but he is now the captain at the Chennai Super Kings which puts me off. You wonder if KL Rahul will bat high enough for the Delhi Capitals to not lose ground to the rest of the challengers while Yashasvi Jaiswal could be the pick of the quartet.
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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 get rid of anyone from side we don’t think will make the play-offs. Depending on where a team finishes their players could get up to three more innings to make a difference and that is significant.
Once we’ve done that we can further chop the field down by looking at batting position. I think the longer this tournament goes on the harder it is going to be to score deeper into the innings. 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 as that has been pretty prominent in this part of the world over the last couple of months. The other thing to take into account is the home ground. A player who bats on a small batting paradise like the Wankhede or Chinnaswamy as a home venue is going to have a better chance than someone who plays on tricky tracks in say Chennai or Delhi.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of players this season with the first of them being Sanju Samson who has been opening the batting for India in this format over the last year or so. With Jos Buttler now out of the way for the Rajasthan Royals, Samson might get a promotion to open the batting which should naturally allow him to improve on his fifth placed finish in this competition last year. Samson is no longer the Rajasthan captain which is another positive for his batting so at 20/1 he feels a natural selection in this market this season.
There is a bit more risk attached to Will Jacks but the fact that he can bowl spin with the new ball makes me think that he’ll find a spot in the Mumbai Indians side and if he does then with half of his matches at the Wankhede he is likely to go very well this season. He has already gone well in the SA20 in the past and he has a decent record in the T20 Blast as well. Jacks is an aggressive batter and will certainly have the wicket to enhance his style. There will be the odd time that he fails but in the main on the Wankhede wickets he can fill his boots a few times. Jacks scored a century in this tournament last season and if he does that again he will be on his way to delivering the goods.
Tips
Back S.Samson Top Tournament Batter (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with Sky Bet (1/4 1-4)
Back W.Jacks Top Tournament Batter (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Sky Bet (1/4 1-4)
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