How to Play Fantasy Cricket: Teams, Captains, Contests

The play loop, in one paragraph

Fantasy cricket is a four-step loop. You pick a match, you build a team of 11 within a salary budget, you choose a captain and a vice-captain, and you join a contest that fits your risk appetite. The team is locked at the toss. The match runs. The points settle. The payout is credited if your team lands inside the paid cut-off.

Building a fantasy XI from a player pool — The selection screen, the cleanest summary of what fantasy cricket actually is.

The four steps, in detail

Pick a match

Open the lobby, scan the upcoming fixtures, and pick the match you want to build a team for. Each fixture shows the contest deadline (almost always the toss) and a list of contest types.

Build the eleven

You have 100 credits. Pick 1 wicketkeeper, 3-6 batters, 1-4 all-rounders and 3-6 bowlers. Each player carries a price based on recent form and tournament history. Stay within the cap.

Set captain and vice-captain

Captain scores 2x. Vice-captain scores 1.5x. Pick the player you most expect to lead the relevant scoring metric. Captaincy is the highest-leverage decision in the game.

Join a contest

Practice (free, no payout), Head-to-Head (2 teams, low variance), Winner Takes All (small field, mid variance) or Mega (10,000+ teams, lottery-style). Same team, different risk.

A coach at a whiteboard sketching role-balance formation — Role balance looks simple. It decides most of the variance.

How to pick a captain

The default captaincy choice is the most expensive batter. The data says otherwise. In T20 leagues over the last calendar year, captain picks at positions 4-6 outscored top-order captain picks by 1.8x. The reason is mechanical: middle-order batters face more deliveries across an innings, and the death overs (16-20) are the highest-scoring overs in T20.

Coach-style ledger overlaid on a cricket photograph showing captaincy notes — The 2x captain multiplier is bigger than every other decision in the game.

The deadline you cannot miss

Every fantasy cricket team is locked at the toss. There is no second guess, no late swap. A late toss change that moves a player into or out of the XI is the most common reason a research-heavy team loses to a research-light team.

Lock-in countdown graphic over a pitch at dusk — The team locks at the toss. There is no second guess.

Which contest is right for you

Contest	Field	Entry	Skill signal	Best for
Practice	Open	Free	None	First 2-3 weeks of an account
Head-to-Head	2 teams	₹10-100	Low variance	When you have one strong read
Winner Takes All	2-50	₹20-500	Mid variance	Confident in a single captain
Mega Contest	10,000+	₹25-1,000	Lottery-style	Multi-entry teams, large sample
Beginner	100-1,000	₹5-25	Capped losses	New accounts, first 30 days

The rules we wish we'd known

Captains win contests, not teams. A mediocre team with a great captain beats a great team with a mediocre captain. Most of the time.
Match-ups matter more than form. A batter in form against a bowler they consistently dominate is worth more than the same batter in form against a bowler they struggle against.
Never edit a team after the toss. The team locks at the toss. There is no second guess.
Bankroll is a budget, not a balance. Pre-set a weekly cap before you join your first contest.

Continue

Lock tonight's team before the contest fills.

Fantasy cricket is a fast game. Pick a match, set your captain, join a contest.

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18+ · Eligibility varies by location · Paid contests involve financial risk