The Indian Premier League is underway yet still squads continue to change with injuries, some long term, providing value bet options. A couple of news items this week mean that two markets have caught our eye – the top runscorer markets for the Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab.
Delhi have had a horrible start to the tournament before a ball has been bowled. They have lost Quinton de Kock and JP Duminy to injury while Shreyas Iyer, their opener, has been laid low by chicken pox. Iyer, at 22, is one of their young guns that they have high hopes for.
With De Kock and Duminy not appearing and Iyer missing innings, the top bat market has been thrown into disarray. It is anyone’s for the taking.
Sam Billings, who only a few weeks ago would have reckoned he wouldn’t get a game, is 5 jolly with Bet365. Then we have a clutch of players all hovering around the same price, proof that the bookies think this is a bun fight. Sanju Samson gets the same quote with Paddy Power and other green listed bookmakers, Karun Nair is 5.5 with Power, Risbah Pant is the same price with Betfred and Iyer comes in at the same number with William Hill.
Across the board there are three different favourites. So which layer has got it right? Step forward Betfred who have Nair as their jolly at 4.33. Nair is the top dog regardless of what has happened to Iyer and that is the sort of price he should be with the majority.
Why? Because last season only De Kock scored more runs than Nair. He notched 357 runs with De Kock weighing in with 445.
Simply, Nair is underrated and unfashionable. He’s not a big name having played only eight times for India so is just not on the radar. But he should be. He has a healthy career strike rate of 121 in Twenty20 so we can be sure that if he does get crease time he won’t need to be there for long.
There is a similar situation at Kings XI. They have been rocked by the loss of Murali Vijay to injury for the whole season. So that leaves Shaun Marsh, the opener, with very little to beat even if he is 3.25 with William Hill, Stan James and Boylesports. Marsh outscored everyone in the first ever IPL so his pedigree is good. His nearest rival is skipper Glen Maxwell at 4 (William Hill, Betfred).
Maxwell is a good player and he had a good Test series in India but the burden of captaincy might take the edge off him.
Big numbers abound for Eoin Morgan (13 William Hill, Betfred, Boylesports) and Hashim Amla (7 same firms) and ordinarily we would, of course, lap those up because both are quality. However, neither man will be available for the whole tournament.
One big price worth having a nibble on is the 26 (Bet365, Betfred) about Marcus Stoinis. He could be devastating or have a poor return. But he’s no 26 shot after some blistering efforts of late.
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