On this page
Fantasy cricket rewards one skill above all others: estimating, before a ball is bowled, how much of a match will pass through each player. This page sets out that way of thinking for contests on Drem. Two deeper plays sit underneath it: building a balanced eleven and choosing between small and mega contests.
What you are really forecasting
A fantasy score is built from events: runs, wickets, catches, stumpings. Events need opportunity. A batter cannot score from the dressing room, and a bowler cannot take a wicket in an over he does not bowl. So every pick comes down to three things multiplied together: opportunity, ability and conditions. Most people judge ability, because it is the part they already know from watching cricket. The edge is in the other two.
The value of each event on Drem is set out on the Points System page, which is visible only inside the platform after you log in. Read it once before your first contest. This playbook does not reproduce it; the method below works from involvement, which counts under any scoring table.
Three questions for every name on the shortlist
- Will he play? A squad is not an eleven. Until the line-ups are announced at the toss, every pick is provisional.
- How much of the match goes through him? Batting position and overs bowled decide this, not reputation.
- Do today’s conditions suit him? The pitch, the size of the boundaries, dew, and whether his side bats first.
Opportunity, counted in balls
A T20 innings is 120 legal balls, and no bowler may deliver more than 24 of them. An ODI innings is 300 balls with a cap of 60 for each bowler. Those limits turn opportunity into something you can count.
| Slot | Share of a T20 he can touch | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Opener | Faces the first ball; a good day is 30 to 50 balls | Is he still opening, or has the side reshuffled? |
| Number three | At the crease inside the powerplay more often than not | His record when he comes in early |
| Numbers four and five | Anything from 5 to 30 balls, depending on the start | Whether hitters are promoted ahead of him |
| Finisher (six or seven) | Often fewer than 12 balls | Worth a slot mainly if he also bowls |
| Frontline bowler | Up to 24 balls | Does he bowl in the powerplay or at the death, when wickets fall? |
| All-rounder | Balls faced plus up to 24 bowled | That both halves really happen |
| Wicketkeeper | Chances behind the stumps, plus his batting slot | The batting slot decides his value |
A worked example: the bigger name or the better slot
Two batters are competing for one place in your team. Batter A is the star: he strikes at 160 runs per hundred balls but bats at six. Batter B is ordinary by comparison, strikes at 130 and opens. Suppose the last few matches show A facing about 10 balls a game and B about 26.
- Batter A: 10 balls × 1.60 = 16 runs.
- Batter B: 26 balls × 1.30 = 34 runs.
The lesser player is worth roughly twice the runs because he is at the crease for longer. The star wins the comparison only on days when the top order collapses, and you cannot plan a team around a collapse. The figures are illustrative. The method is to do the same sum with the real batting positions before each match.
The pre-deadline routine
- The evening before: shortlist 15 or 16 players, not eleven. You need spares for the toss.
- Check the venue: first-innings totals from its last five matches tell you whether to lean on batters or bowlers.
- At the toss: open the line-ups and replace anyone who is not playing.
- Re-read the batting order: a promotion or demotion changes a player’s value more than his form does.
- Set captain and vice-captain last, from different sides or different disciplines, so one bad innings cannot sink both.
- Enter only what you decided to spend before you saw the prize pools. The bankroll page shows how to set that figure.
Fantasy cricket inside Drem
Drem runs fantasy cricket and football contests in its Fantasy tab, and every team names a captain and a vice-captain. When we looked on 13 October 2026 the list could be filtered by Recommended, Starting Soon, Popular and Mega Contest, with your own entries under My Matches. Entry amounts, prizes, the number of teams you may enter and the lock time belong to each contest and vary from match to match, so read them inside the platform before you join.
Mistakes that cost more than bad luck
- Building the team before the toss and never opening it again.
- Taking seven or eight players from the side you support.
- Spending a slot on a famous finisher who faces eight balls.
- Entering a bigger contest because yesterday went badly.
Where to go next
Picking your first team? Read team building next. If you already have a method and want to know why it works in some contests and fails in others, go to contests. Football has a logic of its own, covered in fantasy football.
