Amid the anticipation, the BCCI on Friday (February 25) issued a media release related to the IPL 2022, as per which, a total of 70 league matches will be played across four venues in Mumbai and Pune while the venue for the playoff matches will be decided later.
“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 press release stated.
The tournament will get underway on 26th March, 2022 and the final will be played on 29th May, 2022.
Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, Brabourne Stadium and DY Patil Stadium will host 20 matches, 15 matches, 20 matches respectively while Pune’s MCA International Stadium will stage 15 games of the cash-rich tournament.
All teams will play 4 matches each at Wankhede Stadium and DY Patil Stadium and 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) 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.
The Group A is comprised of Mumbai Indians (MI), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Rajasthan Royals (RR), Delhi Capitals (DC) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) while Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Gujarat Titans (GT) feature in Group 2.
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.
(With iplt20.com inputs)
