If you are looking to place bets on the outright winner of the 2020 IPL, you can do so now as a number of bookmakers have started taking bets. The 2020 IPL will start on Sep 19 and will run till Nov 10. As of now, most bookmakers have defending champions Mumbai Indians as the favorites to win and this comes as no surprise.
If you were betting that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) would be second in line, you lost that bet as Sunrisers Hyderabad are in second place. We give you a quick breakdown of how the bookmakers have ranked each IPL franchise.
Mumbai Indians – they have odds of 5 and are favorites to win given the fact that they are not only the defending champions but also the only franchise to have won the IPL on four occasions. Captain Rohit Sharma has shown that he is brilliant with both the bat and in leading the side during the IPL. Sharma has a talented squad yet again and will look to win back to back IPL championships.
Sunrisers Hyderabad – they have odds of 5.5 even though they have only won the IPL once in 2016. The reason they are in second place is because David Warner will captain the side again. The Sunrisers always take their game to another level when Warner is leading the squad as the other players lift the game and draw inspiration from him.
Chennai Super Kings: CSK has odds of 6 and are in third place because of outside factors. For one – they have lost vice-captain Suresh Raina who has returned to India and is set to miss the 2020 IPL. They have also been hit with COVID-19 at the start of their camp in Dubai and their practice sessions have been delayed. However, with MS Dhoni continuing to captain the side, expect CSK to once again put up an impressive season.
Delhi Capitals: the Capitals have odds of 7. They played well last season under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer who did a great job in bringing the team together and getting the most out of the resources he had. The Capitals do not have a star-studded line-up, so it will be up to players like R Pant, S Dhawan and A Rahane to help Iyer and the Capitals out.
RC Bangalore: have odds of 8 and rightly so as they have disappointed in every IPL so far. This is going to be a tough test for Captain Kohli as another poor IPL might see him stripped of the captaincy. He will once again look to the experienced AB Devilliers and Dale Steyn for help.
Kolkata Knight Riders: KKR are tied with RCB with odds of 8. If KKR are to do well in 2020, Dinesh Karthik needs to get his team to work well together as there were issues in the KKR camp in 2019. Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan and Pat Cummins are the key players in this squad.
Kings XI Punjab: have odds of 10 as very few expect Kings XI to be a major threat in the 2020 IPL. Their performance is going to be determined by how well new skipper KL Rahul captains the side and whether he can lead from the front with the bat. Top players in this squad include veteran Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran and Glenn Maxwell.
Rajasthan Royals: also have odds of 10 like Kings XI. However, they will always be a dark horse especially since Steve Smith is back to lead the Royals. Some of the other top players include Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer and David Miller.
The biggest concern that punters will have wagering on an outright winner is that a team’s odds can change dramatically especially if their key players contract COVID-19 and are forced to miss out on a few games or the whole tournament.
