Instagram has become one of the most used social networking sites all over the world and with over 1 billion users, it has become one of the best places for achieving fame and popularity in a very short time.
The Indian Premier League is the most popular cricket league all over the world and all the IPL franchises have their own Instagram handles, used by them to increase the popularity of their team.
The franchises share the inside updates of their team, their achievements and attract the fans to follow their page on Instagram.
So, it can be said that the more the number of followers a team has on Instagram, the more is its popularity and so, here we have ranked all the 8 IPL franchises on the basis of their Instagram followers.
The first ever champions of the Indian Premier League, Rajasthan Royals, have the least number of Instagram followers amongst all the IPL teams. The Royals have 3,92,000+ followers on Instagram, which is quite low as compared to the other seven teams.
One of the key reasons behind it is the absence of any big stars in the team. The biggest Indian name in the franchise is Ajinkya Rahane and the team has a lot of young Indian players who are relatively less popular than the other players.
Also, the franchise had faced a 2-year ban after its owners were involved in a betting scandal and so, that could be one of the reasons why the Rajasthan Royals have a smaller fan-base. The team had finished fourth in the 2018 and the Jaipur franchise would be looking to improve their performance and win the title this year.
Earlier known as the Delhi Daredevils, the Delhi Capitals are the underachievers of the Indian Premier League. Despite being in the league since its inception, the Delhi franchise has failed to win the IPL title.
The franchise was home to some great players like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Mahela Jayawardene, Kevin Pietersen, and many other stars and yet had failed to deliver in the league.
Delhi Capitals have 5,23,000 followers on Instagram and the team would be looking to improve its on-field performance in order to increase their fans. They have reached semi-finals on several occasions only to crash out from the tournament before the finale. This year the Capitals have star Indian players in Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Prithvi Shaw.
Kings XI Punjab is another team which has failed to win an IPL title despite being a part of the league since its inception. Though they had reached the final in 2014, the Mohali franchise lost to the Kolkata Knight Riders by three wickets to finish as the runners-up of the season.
KXIP had a strong squad in 2018 but they missed out on a playoff position by a whisker in the end. Kings XI Punjab have a massive 7,37,000+ followers on the social media, Instagram and the Punjabi team would love to gift their fans the IPL trophy in 2019.
They have the likes of Chris Gayle, KL Rahul, Andrew Tye, Karun Nair, R Ashwin, Moises Henriques, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, and Mayank Agarwal in the squad to ensure that the team betters its 2014 performance and wins the championship this year.
@davidwarner31 - 5⃣9⃣ 🆚 Chittagong Vikings 👊 @shaki_b75 - 3⃣/ 1⃣8⃣ 🆚 Khulna Titans 💪 Our two men led from the front for Sylhet Sixers and Dhaka Dynamites respectively, guiding their sides to victory in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League.
Sunrisers Hyderabad replaced the Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League and the franchise has managed to retain the huge fan base that the Chargers had. SRH had won the IPL title in 2016 after David Warner's men defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore in a closely contested final.
The team lost in the final last year as their bowling attack was blown away by Chennai Super Kings' Shane Watson. The Orange Army has 7,39,000 followers on Instagram which is just 2,000 more than the 6th placed Kings XI Punjab.
Sunrisers have a strong squad for the 12th season of IPL as Australian opener David Warner will join the likes of Shakib Al Hasan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kane Williamson, Deepak Hooda, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi in the team. Hyderabad would love to continue their 2018 form in 2019 as well and this time the Orange Army would be looking to capture their 2nd IPL title.
IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders is owned by one of the most popular celebrities of the country, Shahrukh Khan and so, the team had a huge fan following ever since the first season of the league.
Kolkata Knight Riders have won the Indian Premier League twice in 11 years and the Knights finished 3rd in the previous edition of the league. The Kolkata based franchise has 8,30,000 followers on the social network Instagram which shows the immense popularity of the team.
Captained by Indian wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik, the team has a lot of well-known names of cricket like Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Rana, and Chris Lynn. The team was perfectly balanced in 2018 but the last minute injury to Mitchell Starc led to issues in the team. However, KKR would be looking to improve their performance in 2019.
Chennai Super Kings is one of the only three IPL teams to have over than 1 million followers on Instagram. The team is immensely popular in the southern part of India, especially in Tamil Nadu. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been the icon of this franchise since 2008 and he is one of the major reasons behind the team's wild fan following.
Chennai Super Kings have 1.6 million followers on Instagram which is more than the total of the followers of Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals. MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, and Ravindra Jadeja are the key Indian players of this franchise which even has talented foreigners like DJ Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Lungi Ngidi, Shane Watson, and many others.
Their head coach Stephen Fleming would be keen on helping the team retain their crown in 2019 after the team made a fairy-tale return to the league last year.
Virat Kohli, India's captain, is the face of this Bengaluru-based franchise and he has been with this team for the last 11 years now, with 2019 set to be his 12th season for the team. However, the team has never ever been able to win an IPL trophy despite coming close on multiple occasions. They had reached the final in 2016 but have failed to qualify for the playoffs ever since.
Royal Challengers Bangalore have 2 million followers on Instagram and a major reason behind it is the presence of two of the most famous cricketers - Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. The Bold Army made some brilliant buys in the auction as they snapped up the likes of Shimron Hetmyer, Prayas Ray Barman and Shivam Dubey. They will join Virat Kohli, de Villiers, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Nathan Coulter-Nile, and Parthiv Patel, and would try to win the cup this year.
Mumbai Indians are undoubtedly one of the most popular cricket teams all over the world and the fact that they have more than 2.2 million followers on Instagram just solidifies the statement. The Rohit Sharma led franchise had won the IPL title in 2013, 2015 and 2017 and they would be keen on adding the 4th title in 2019.
Mumbai Indians has been home to legendary players like Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Ricky Ponting, Lasith Malinga, Andrew Symonds and they have also signed Yuvraj Singh in the 2019 auction.
They have nurtured several young talents like Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Krunal Pandya, who are currently playing for the Indian team. The team is looking better than ever ahead of the 2019 season and so, they have a big chance of winning the championship this year.