The criteria to be an IPL champion
India’s very own cricket tournament, the India Premier League(IPL)’s 13th season has flagged off. With a total of eight teams on the ground, the clashes are expected to be exciting as always. Although the teams represent names of Indian cities, the players do not hail from those cities. Most fans also support other teams regrdless of their names, making it a grand and diverse celebration of cricket.
IPL in the time of COVID
From 2007, when IPL was first conducted, twelve seasons have occurred. In IPL 2019, the championship was won by team Mumbai Indians. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, everything has come to a pause. All sporting events were cancelled or postponed. Similarly, even the Indian Premier League Matches was facing a lot of speculations.
When the Indian government allowed IPL 2020 to be conducted in UAE, the matches were rescheduled. The tournament saw the green flag on September 19 and will continue till November 10. A new set of rules and regulations has been established considering the pandemic.
IPL 2020 opened with Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians ‘fighting’ against each other in which CSK emerged as winners. Despite the match occurring miles away from India, fans still cheer for their favourite teams virtually. Although the stands are free of the spectators, social media is thriving with fan fights, cheers, and bets.
Money matters
IPL has high stakes on money. From mega sponsors to millions of dollars being spent while auctioning for players, spending does have a major role in IPLs. Although, this does not in any way indicate that the biggest spenders are the winners.
The trend that Betway evaluated shows that the team that spent the most has almost all the times failed to emerge victorious. A team needs to evaluate who to spend on and how the overall team looks like in the end. Virat Kohli has always been a favourite with his bid touch more than 2 million US dollars. MS Dhoni is not far behind either.
Stats show that Mumbai Indians is the team who spent the most this year. Would that stop Captain Rohit Sharma’s team from taking the cup home? The existing trend says yes, but cricket is not predictable like that.
The confusion regarding age
Be it any sport, there is always the question at what age should a sportsman retire. Recently, the news of M S Dhoni’s retirement sparked interesting debates about the same although Suresh Raina’s retirement got shadowed by the former.
However, in IPL, a crop of experienced and older player continue to play the game. One question during the auction is will the team go for the experienced players or the younger ones. The previous seasons show that a blanced team is the way to go. The team should have an average age preferably more than 25, but less than 30.
Importance of capped players
When one looks at the last 12 seasons of IPL, one trend that can be seen clearly is that the presence of capped players is important to the tournament. Apart from the victory of Rajasthan Royals, all other champions had 15 international players aboard their team.
Opting to add international players from other nationalities helps the IPL to gain global attention. This also promotes a friendly camaderie among players who otherwise sport different jerseys. The league provides regional players a platform to work with top international cricketers and give them some limelight too.
Who could be the winner of IPL 2020
The criteria mentioned above are a reflection of the previous IPLs and the trends that were observed in it. According to this, Royal Challengers Bangalore has better chances of stealing the show. Although RCB is said to have a massive fan base and a great team, they have never managed to win the tournament before.
Regardless, the game has unpredictabilities hidden in it, much like any other sport. If Captain Kohli takes the trophy home this time, the fans that are said to be loyal will gain morale to support the team even in the next IPL. However, there are equal chances that some other team might emerge as champions too.
