Can you go 16–0?

The database behind the game holds 3,197 player-seasons — every campaign every cricketer has produced in Indian T20 history from 2008 to 2026, each rated and priced as its own draftable pick. Eleven picks sounds like enough room to improvise. It is not. These are the scouting principles the game teaches the hard way; none of them make a perfect season easy, but they separate a coherent squad from a famous one.

Balance beats star power

The engine plays whole matches: somebody has to score the runs, somebody has to take the wickets, somebody has to bowl the death overs. A batting order of six openers with two part-time bowlers behind it produces a highlight reel and a losing record. Real batters up top, real bowlers at the death, frontline spin in the middle.

The purse is the real opponent

Every player-season carries a price — the game's own valuation of that year, not the real-world auction fee. The most famous season in the database costs nearly a fifth of the Normal purse on its own, while cheap legends hide in every era: some of the best value in the game costs under a crore. The gap between what a season is worth and what it costs is the whole draft.

Do not chase the gloves

The keeper rule sounds trivial and is not. Your wicketkeeper can bat anywhere in the order, so a cheap, competent keeper-batter frees serious money for the rest of the XI. An elite keeper is a luxury, not a requirement — and the elite shelf is short.

Price is not quality

The most expensive name on a board is the most famous, not necessarily the best value. Some of the priciest seasons in the game are, by the numbers, traps. In Normal mode the stat table exists so you can catch them; Expert takes the map away and assumes you already know which famous seasons earned their fame.

If a spin genuinely strands you, a small budget of swaps lets you re-spin the year or the whole board. They are deliberately scarce — spending one is admitting the board beat you.