Shubman Gill emerges as ‘Most Likeable’ Cricketer owing to consistency and entertainment qualities Moves from 69th to 5th spot in ‘Favourite Players’ ranking -Hansa Research IPLomania Report

Akin to its previous editions, the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 once again proved to be a phenomenal sporting extravaganza, presenting a high-spirited blend of performances, entertainment and engagement, while also simultaneously generating unique and highly-valued opportunities for brands. The top-tier cricketing skills and excellence on display not only pleasantly surprised game experts, but also paved the way towards stardom for some of the young and emerging cricketers.

According to Hansa Research’s IPLomania 2023 report, Shubman Gill – the Gujarat Titans’ opening batsman topped the ‘Emerging Cricketers Likeability’ list with 27 per cent of the study respondents choosing him to be the ‘most liked’ player during this season. Gill scored a cumulative of 890 runs over the course of 17 matches and also won the ‘Orange Cap’ of IPL 2023. Gill is followed by (in order) Matheesha Pathirana of Chennai Super Kings, Rinku Singh of Kolkata Knight Riders, and Yashasvi Jaiswal of Rajasthan Royals.

Some of the key factors that played a pivotal role leading to the ‘likeability’ spike include: consistency in performance, providing joy and entertainment to viewers, risk-taking ability among others. Interestingly, while 60% of respondents felt that Shubman Gill was ‘consistent with his performance’, 51% vouched for Rinku Singh’s ‘self-belief and risk-taking instincts’ during the matches, whereas 52% felt that Matheesha Pathirana ‘stepped just when the team needed him’.

At the same time, Shubman Gill rose stupendously in the Favourite Players Ranking from 69th in IPL 2022 to 5th this year while the Top 4 positions continue to be secured by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Hardik Pandya. Another significant growth to mention is Mumbai Indians’ Batsman Surya Kumar Yadav, who jumped to 6^th spot this year in Most Favourite Player of IPL 2023 from 12th in IPL 2022.

Besides lifting this year’s IPL trophy and becoming the Most Favourite Player of IPL 2023, “Captain Cool” Mahendra Singh Dhoni added more feathers to his cap as he was announced Most Favourite Captain of the season, followed by Rohit Sharma of Mumbai Indians and Hardik Pandya of Gujarat Titans. Furthermore, Dhoni’s team garnered maximum audience support as well during this year’s IPL, with 29% of the IPL viewers supporting Chennai Super Kings (CSK), as against 16% support last year.

In addition to cricketers rankings, the IPLomania 2023 report also sheds light on the growing popularity and brand recall value achieved by various brands with advertisements and marketing efforts. Based on the report findings, fantasy sports platform Dream11 has emerged as the ‘Most Aware Brand’, followed by Tata Neu, My11Circle, and Airtel 5G. The high levels of ad-recall gained by Dream11 during IPL 2023 can be attributed to a series of interesting and innovative ads launched featuring Bollywood celebrities like Aamir Khan and R Madhavan, and ace cricketers Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya, which evidently captured the audiences’ attention and resonated with them successfully.

Pramod Pawar, Head – IPLomania Study, Hansa Research said, “Our IPLomania report was launched with the aim of helping key stakeholders in the IPL ecosystem understand and cater to their audiences. This year, our report has deep-dived into decoding the various facets of viewership and experiences and deriving a treasure trove of unique insights such as the growing ‘likeability’ of emerging players on one side and the non-stop fan following of the legends on the other. We feel gratified to see our respondents’ proactive participation every year that gives us the assurance that our report has been able to build credibility and has become a ready reckoner for all IPL-led insights. It’s amazing how one sporting event binds the entire country, year on year.”

Notably, another significant insight is the continued dominance of ‘Dual Viewership’ (TV + OTT) for IPL, with 56% of the respondents saying that they have watched the tournament through both TV and digital (OTT) mediums. Whereas specifically when it came to OTT platform preferences, a whopping 88% preferred JioCinema over Hotstar as their go-to streaming platform, owning mainly due to former’s delivery of better video quality and coverage of regional (vernacular) languages, among other underlying factors.

Key Highlights of IPLomania 2023 report:

Information Basis	Details
Most ‘Likeable’ Emerging Cricketer	Shubman Gill (GT)
Other ‘Likeable’ Emerging Cricketers	Matheesha Pathirana (CSK), Rinku Singh (KKR), Yashasvi Jaiswal (RR), Tilak Verma (MI)
Top 7 ‘Favourite Players’ of IPL 2023 (Rankwise)	1.    MS Dhoni (Rank 1) 2.    Virat Kohli 3.    Rohit Sharma 4.    Hardik Pandya 5.    Shubman Gill 6.    Suryakumar Yadav 7.    KL Rahul
Top 5 ‘Favourite Captains’ of IPL 2023 (Rankwise)	1.    MS Dhoni, CSK 2.    Rohit Sharma, MI 3.    Hardik Pandya, GT 4.    Faf du Plessis, RCB 5.    KL Rahul, LSG
TOP 10 AWARE Brands (Rankwise)	1.    Dream 11 (Rank 1) 2.    Tata Neu 3.    My11circle 4.    Airtel 5G 5.    MyTeam11 6.    Tata Tiago.ev 7.    Ceat 8.    MPL 9.    Vivo 10.  Ajio
Viewership Preference	34% TV Viewers, 10% OTT Viewers, and 56% Dual (TV+OTT Viewers)