For the first time since its inception in 2008, the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) league phase will see the teams divided into two virtual groups. The IPL Governing Council on Friday announced that IPL 2022 will begin from March 26 with the final slated on May 29. The 70 matches in the league phase will be hosted across four venues in Mumbai and Pune. Over the years, IPL’s league stage has always been played in a home-away format, where each team plays the same opposition twice but in the 15th edition, there will be a change. The number of teams in IPL 2022 has been increased to 10 with the addition of two new franchises – Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants – but the number of matches per team remains 14.
The 10 teams will play a total of 14 league matches (7 home matches and 7 away matches) totalling 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.
Group A comprises Mumbai Indians, KKR, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants.
IPL 2022 Virtual Groups Explained
The group B will have Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans.
In group A MI (Team 1) with five titles, has been placed 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 Playing Pattern – Which Team Will Face Whom?
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.
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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.
(With PTI inputs)
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