Mumbai Indians revealed as UK’s favourite IPL team

Mumbai Indians were the most popular IPL team in the UK in 2020 as interest in the T20 tournament surpassed that of 2019.

Rohit Sharma’s side were crowned champions of the IPL for the second year in a row and a record fifth time overall on Tuesday, but they have also enjoyed significant success off the pitch.

Research carried out by Cricket Bet India reveals that Mumbai were the most popular franchise among British fans, despite a total of 10 English players participating in the tournament and none of them featuring for the champions. Interestingly, the most “fancy bets” — bets placed on the outright winner — are also placed on this team.

Rajasthan Royals had a strong English contingent with Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Tom Curran in the squad, and are unsurprisingly the second most popular side in the UK, with over 1,000 monthly searches – a 9% decrease on Mumbai’s numbers.

Royal Challengers Bangalore have always been popular with fans all over the world for their strong and attacking batting line-up, but despite Moeen Ali being a spectator for most of the tournament they remain the third most popular, while Sam Curran’s Chennai Super Kings are in fourth despite a miserable showing.

Delhi Capitals reached the final only to lose to Mumbai, and despite having no English representation they proved more popular than ODI captain Eoin Morgan and Tom Banton’s Kolkata Knight Riders who had half as many search results as Mumbai Indians.

Sunrisers Hyderabad, who had Jonny Bairstow, and Chris Jordan’s Kings XI Punjab proved to be the two least popular franchises for British audiences.

Mumbai Indians are also the most popular side in India, with more than 13% as many searches on Google than their nearest rivals, CSK who remain popular with fans despite their initial struggles.

RCB, led by India’s national captain Virat Kohli, are some way behind in third place just ahead of 2016 winners Sunrisers Hyderabad and two-time champions KKR.

Rajasthan Royals are clearly not as popular in India as they are in the UK (by comparative audiences) but are still ahead of Kings XI, while the Capitals are surprisingly at the bottom of the pile despite their exciting crop of local talent.

Research from Cricket Bet India also reveals that the IPL also enjoyed a 37% increase in online interest from the UK, with more fans searching Google for IPL terms during 2020 than 2019.

Previous studies from CBI showed how there were more TV viewers in the UK this year, and now the latest Google Trends research shows that there was more interest during the six-week tournament between September-November 2020 than March-May 2019.

IPL searches online have been more regular in 2020 than 2019