Khel Now's 6 August 2026 Dream11 preview for London Spirit vs MI London at Lord's — Will Jacks and Rashid Khan in suggested team one, Liam Livingstone and David Willey in team two, with the Lord's pitch read, weather and the 8-2 head-to-head.
The newest editorial column from the fantasy desk. Filed fresh and linked through every editorial collection on the site.
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Fantasy · 6 August 2026 · Match 23
The IFI desk files Khel Now's Match 23 fantasy preview for London Spirit vs MI London at Lord's on 6 August 2026 — Will Jacks as captain and Rashid Khan as vice-captain in suggested team one, Liam Livingstone and David Willey in team two, with pitch notes, head-to-head and the toss overlay.
Read the Match 23 preview →
Fantasy · 17 April 2026 · Republished 2 August 2026
The IFI desk reopens The Sunday Guardian's 17 April 2026 preview for Gujarat Titans against Kolkata Knight Riders at Narendra Modi Stadium — predicted elevens, pitch notes, Gill's Ahmedabad numbers and the captaincy sheet.
Read the retrospective →
Fantasy · 9 January 2026 · Republished 29 July 2026
The IFI desk revisits In Her Circle's exclusive January 2026 conversation with the World Cup-winning captain of India and Mumbai Indians. The interview — filmed at Trident, Nariman Point, by Iona Chatterjee with art direction from Sameer More — frames the same vocabulary the fantasy desk applies to the captain 2x.
Read the retrospective →10
Franchises covered
577
Players at 2026 auction
₹639Cr
Auction total spend
28+8
States eligible to play
Everything you need before locking your team tonight: captain logic, points math, and the match-up reads our desk has filed since yesterday’s last over.
Folio A
Captain · RCB
Venue captaincy rate 47%. PP strike rate 142. Lock if toss won.
Full pick →
Captain · MI
71% captain wins in last 12. PP swing factor 1.8x.
Full pick →
Death Overs · MI
Death-overs economy 6.8. 4-fers in 2 of last 5 Wankhede games.
Full pick →
Differential · GT
Selected by 8% of teams. Average 58 at Narender Modi Stadium.
Full pick →
Math Reference
Strike rate 130-150 gives 4 pts. Above 200 gives 8. Bowl economy under 5 gives 6.
Read the math →
Cap Math
Three-tier allocation: 38-42 anchors, 22-26 all-rounders, 8-12 differentials.
Build it →The data behind why a billion-plus cricket nation is also the world’s biggest fantasy market.
Folio B50M+
Unique fantasy accounts across the major apps in India.
28+8
Open states plus restricted states with their own regulators.
577
Players sold at the December 2025 mega auction in Jeddah.
₹639Cr
Total franchise spend at the 2026 mega auction.
The eight columns our desk files every week, in the order Bharat reads them.
Folio C
Captains
When to pick the safe 2x, when to gamble on the differential 2x, and when the vice-captain is the real play.
Read →
Points
Run bands, wicket bands, catch points, strike-rate bonuses, and the fielding math the apps don’t surface in the UI.
Read →
Salary Cap
A repeatable budget allocation that survives a flat captaincy night and a 4-fer from your differential bowler.
Read →
State Rules
The 2021 Supreme Court framework, the six restricted states, and the 22 open states where the major apps operate.
Read →Five regional editions of the same match, filed by correspondents who actually travel for cricket.
Folio DSix habits our editorial board uses before filing a captain pick or a points call.
Folio EEvery pick starts with the ground. Boundaries, pitch type, dew factor.
Captaincy decisions update the moment the coin lands, not before.
Last three head-to-heads, last three at this venue, last three in this phase.
If 60% of teams own a player, the captain value is already in the price.
Filed for the Indian Premier League season. Updated by 9 am every match day.
Folio F
Death Overs
The bowlers who own overs 16-20 in 2026 and the captain 2x they unlock.
Read →
Powerplay
The powerplay bonus structure rewards the bowler who breaks the opening partnership.
Read →
Auction
577 players, ₹639 Cr. The Pant move, the Rahul move, and the silent steal.
Read →Six questions the desk fields most from the pan-India reader base.
Folio GMost states allow Dream11, My11Circle, MPL Fantasy Cricket, and MyTeam11. Six states (Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Sikkim, Nagaland) restrict real-money play. Sikkim and Nagaland have their own licensing frameworks.
The captain earns double his match points; the vice-captain earns 1.5x. The choice is locked at team-creation time, before toss, so the call must be made on pre-match data only.
Each squad has 100 credits to spend on 11 players. Star players cost 11-15 credits, anchors 8-10, differentials 6-7. The cap forces trade-offs that define contest strategy.
Yes. PAN plus Aadhaar verification is required for withdrawals above ₹10,000 per transaction. Most apps complete KYC within 24 hours.
UPI withdrawals test 5-30 minutes on average during the IPL season. IMPS runs 30-120 minutes. Bank transfer takes 4-6 hours. NEFT is 24-48 hours.
Each team can substitute one nominated player from a list of four at the 14th over mark. The substitute gets full points. The original XI member’s points freeze at that over.
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Join IPL Fantasy IndiaThe IFI editorial desk files this note fresh each week from the Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata press boxes. The note covers the venue read, the form read, the match-up read, the ownership analysis, and the responsible play reminder. The note is the editorial foundation of the desk's pan-India coverage; the note is the data layer of the pan-India fantasy community's captaincy decision.
For the desi reader who is locked into the contest budget for the week, the note is the closest thing to a personal consultation with the desk's editor in chief. The note includes the captaincy overlay for the 3 most-watched matches of the week, the differential path for the 5 highest-edge plays, the contest allocation for the 4 major apps, and the responsible play reminder for the pan-India fantasy community. The note is the editorial home of the weekly fantasy cricket work.
The three India correspondents — based at Wankhede, Chinnaswamy, and Eden Gardens — file 200-word match reports for every contest. The reports cover the venue's bounce, the dew timing, the boundary carrier, the captain's body language at the toss, the outfield's grass cover, the umpire's strike rate. The reports are the data layer of the pan-India fantasy community's venue reads; the reports are the editorial foundation of the IFI desk's coverage.
For the desi reader who watches the match from a Kolkata tea stall, a Bengaluru IT park, a Jaipur paan shop, a Hyderabad biryani joint, a Lucknow kebab corner, or a Delhi metro seat, the reports are the closest thing to being at the ground. The reports are aggregated into the captaincy overlay on the captain picks page; the reports are the editorial home of the pan-India fantasy community.
The IFI desk's editor in chief reminds the pan-India fantasy community of the responsible play framework on every page of the site. The framework requires: 18+ only, KYC mandatory, state eligibility confirmed, self-exclusion tools used when the warning signs are present, no using the contest as a primary income source, no chasing losses, no playing under the influence. The framework is the editorial floor of the pan-India fantasy community; the framework is the data layer of the responsible play understanding; the framework is the application layer of the desk's commitment to the community.
For the desi reader who is reading this page on a phone in a crowded market, in a quiet office, in a college classroom, or on a train, the reminder is the editorial trust layer. The reminder is the foundation of the desk's commitment; the reminder is the application layer of the responsible play understanding; the reminder is the editorial home of the pan-India fantasy community's responsible play.