Shubman Gill, opening batsman for the Gujarat Titans, has topped the list of the most popular emerging cricketers during this season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), according to the IPLomania 2023 report released by Hansa Research. 27% of the survey respondents chose him as the ‘most liked’ player of the season, during which he scored 890 runs in 17 games and also picked up the Orange Cap (award for most runs scored in a season) and the most valuable player honour.
On the advertiser awareness pitch, with a 77% recall score, fantasy sports platform Dream11 is at the top followed by Tata Neu (57% recall score) and My11Circle (56% recall score). Other advertisers featured in the top 10 are Airtel 5G (ranked 4), My Team 11 (5) and Tata Tiago.ev (6). The report notes that the ad recall that Dream11 saw during this season of the IPL may be attributed to a series of ads featuring various celebrities and cricket stars such as Rohit Sharma, Aamir Khan, R Madhavan and Hardik Pandya.
Another interesting insight from the report was that 56% of the respondents chose dual viewership, having watched the tournament games on both, TV and digital platforms.
Among the emerging players this season, Gill is followed by Matheesha Pathirana of Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Rinku Singh of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and Yashasvi Jaiswal of Rajasthan Royals (RR) in that order. 23-year-old Gill, who plays for Punjab in domestic cricket, has endorsed brands like Gillette, CEAT and My11Circle.
While Gill was named fan favourite among the emerging players, former Indian skipper MS Dhoni continues to hold the most popular player honour and is also the favourite captain of the season. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya continued to rule among the top players this season as well, taking the second, third and fourth place respectively. Gill, who was in the 69th position last season, saw a spectacular rise this year to become the fifth most popular IPL player, followed by Mumbai Indians’ Surya Kumar Yadav, who jumped up to number six from the 12th position last year and KL Rahul at number seven.
Among the team captains, right after fan favourite Dhoni, Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians), Hardik Pandya (Gujarat Titans) and Faf du Plessis of Royal Challengers Bangalore took the second, third and fourth spots respectively. This year’s title winners, CSK were also the most favoured and supported team with 29% of the respondents backing them as opposed to 16% last year. Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore continue to remain among the top favourite teams.
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