Cricket in India has almost attained the stature of a religion. It is widely watched and followed all around the country. Almost every other person has an opinion about the way cricket should be played. It unites the people of the country, who do not shy away from shouting at the top of their voice when it comes to supporting their favorite teams. Fans have often been seen giving tips to cricketers while sitting comfortably on the couch in their living room.
This craziness has been taken to a completely new level with the advent of the Indian T20 League. The allegiance has now been diverted. Fans no more share the same passion for one single team but have varied loyalties towards different franchises. The passion, though, remains the same. The nail-biting finishes often help to bring the best of the passions out of the fans.
A completely different dimension to the madness has been added with the introduction of fantasy cricket. Fans now have the opportunity to build and manage their own cricket teams. The only thing they need to have is a smartphone with an internet connection. Fantasy cricket is for those who wish to control the team’s composition from the comfort of their homes. The Howzat fantasy cricket app available on the Play Store is the perfect fantasy cricket app to play fantasy cricket for free.
The essentials of fantasy cricket
Fantasy cricket allows you to pick your own playing XI from a set of 22 players belonging to two different teams participating in a real-world match. It requires a lot of in-depth knowledge as selecting the right team would earn you points, thus allowing you to win the competition you take part in. Strategic decisions also need to be taken depending on the pitch and the result of the toss.
Fantasy cricket apps allow you 100 credit points to choose your team. The maximum number of players you can pick from one team is 7. Your team should have at least 1 wicketkeeper and one all-rounder. It should also include a minimum of 3 batters and an equal number of bowlers. Since all-rounders give you the option with both bat and ball, it would be advisable to pick more all-rounders in the team. The upper limit for that is 4.
The goal is simple. Beating the opponent by as large a margin as possible. The initial job would be to learn as much as possible about every player and then playing some practice matches to get an idea about how fantasy cricket works. Cricket matches keep taking place all round the year and so it wouldn’t be difficult to find one that would be a perfect fit for you. You can play T10, T20, ODI as well as Test cricket.
How to make improved predictions
An in-depth knowledge about fantasy cricket is crucial to your becoming a master of the trade. Players often end up making silly errors which make them suffer at the hands of their opponents. There are a few key pointers, therefore, to keep in mind if you want to become a master predictor.
- Give additional thought to knowing more about the players you are looking to invest in. It often happens that an expert of a certain format might not be that good for another. Age might also come into play when it comes to some of the formats.
- Take a closer look at the pitch to understand how it is going to play over the course of the entire match. For day-night matches bowling second could prove to be risky given the dew factor.
- Choose your captain and vice-captain wisely as a captain earns 2X points compared to any other player in your team whereas it is 1.5X in case of the vice captain and therefore, if those 2 have a good match, you would naturally gain an advantage over your opponent.
- Taking a final look at the team you have selected following the toss is important. There can be a few enforced changes that might be revealed during the toss. In that case your XI would suffer because of the absence of those players. So you can wait until the toss to pit your team against an opponent.
- For the shortest format of the game, it would be advisable to have top order batters in the team as they would get the maximum number of overs to make an impact. The middle or lower-middle order batters might not even get a chance to bat.
- In bowling, someone with a knack for taking wickets should be preferred to someone having the ability to concede fewer runs. Wickets do matter when it comes to earning points in fantasy cricket and therefore, a bowler taking more wickets after conceding more runs is preferable to a bowler taking fewer wickets for fewer runs.
Fantasy cricket games are here to stay and are definitely going to attract more and more people in the coming days. The fact that it combines the excitement of cricket with the comfort of home is going to add to its popularity. An app like Howzat is the perfect place for you to play fantasy cricket online. All you have to do is download the Howzat app and get started. Happy gaming!