The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday released the details of the upcoming TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season, which is slated to begin from March 26, with the finals to be played on May 29.
"The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League will be played in a bio-secure environment at a single hub to avoid air travel which is considered as a major threat for the spread of COVID-19 infection, thereby affecting the players and the league/matches," the statement released by BCCI said.
As per groupings released, group A comprises Mumbai Indians, KKR, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Supergiants.
The group B will have Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans.
Over the years, the IPL has been an eight-team affair where each team played each other twice at the round robin league stage to complete 14 games.
However, this group league format is not new in IPL as it was once used a decade back when Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers Kerala were part of the league.
All teams will play: -4 matches each at Wankhede Stadium and DY Patil Stadium. -3 matches each at Brabourne Stadium (CCI) and MCA International Stadium, Pune. -The 10 teams will play a total of 14 league matches (7 home matches and 7 away matches) totaling to 70 league matches, followed by the 4 playoff matches. -Each team will play 5 teams twice and the remaining 4 teams only once (2 only home and 2 only away). -To decide on the above, teams have been assigned in two virtual groups based on the number of IPL Championships won followed by the number of Final matches played by the respective teams.
The rows and columns of the groups (A and B, has been done as per IPL performances --- number of titles and number of finals reached.
Firstly, the groupings have been done as per IPL performance where group A has MI (Team 1) with five titles as first team. Correspondingly, in group B. the first team is CSK (Team 2) which has four titles.
Team 3 is again placed in group A and that is KKR with two titles and the corresponding Team 4 placed in group B is SRH with a sole title.
Team 5 again in group A is Rajasthan Royals (1 title) and its corresponding Team 6 in group B is RCB, which has played three finals.
Team 7 in group A is DC, which has one final appearance and two play-offs while corresponding Team 8 in group B is Punjab Kings with one final appearance.
Newcomers, Lucknow Super Giants is Team 9 in group A and Gujarat Titans is corresponding team 10 in group B.
IPL 2022 venues, matches:
Each team will play twice with the teams in their group and with the team in the same row in the second group. With the rest of the teams in the second group they will play only once during the season.
For Example: In Group A, MI will play 2 matches each against KKR, RR, DC, LSG. MI will also play 2 matches against CSK and 1 match each against other teams in Group B.Similarly, in Group B, RCB will play 2 matches against CSK, SRH, PBKS and GT. RCB will also play 2 matches against RR and 1 match each against other teams in Group A.
This is how teams attain (8+6) 14 group league games.