The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League will be played in a bio-secure environment at a single hub to avoid air travel in the light of Covid-19 threat, the governing council decided during their meeting.
The tournament will kickstart from 26th March and the final will be played on 29th May, BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a statement released by the board.
A total of 70 league matches will be played across four international standard venues in Mumbai and Pune. The venue for the playoff matches will be decided later.
| Venue | Number of Matches |
|---|---|
| Mumbai - Wankhede Stadium | 20 Matches |
| Mumbai - Brabourne Stadium (CCI) | 15 Matches |
| Mumbai - DY Patil Stadium | 20 Matches |
| Pune - MCA International Stadium | 15 Matches |
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, with two new franchises coming into the fray, were also divided into two virtual groups to decide the fixtures. When the IPL had been an eight-team affair, each team played each other twice at the round robin league stage to complete 14 games. However, this sort of 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.
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).
The home and away matches, of course, are only designated on paper really with the tournament restricted to one hub for the upcoming season.
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 details of the teams having won the IPL Championships and number of times each of them has played a final match is listed below:
| Team | Winner | Final |
|---|---|---|
| MI | 5 | 6 |
| CSK | 4 | 9 |
| KKR | 2 | 3 |
| SRH | 1 | 2 |
| RR | 1 | 1 |
| RCB | 0 | 3 |
| DC | 0 | 1 |
| PBKS | 0 | 1 |
| LSG | 0 | 0 |
| GT | 0 | 0 |
Virtual groups for IPL 2022
| Group A | Group B | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MI(5) | 2 | CSK(4) |
| 3 | KKR(2) | 4 | SRH(1) |
| 5 | RR(1) | 6 | RCB |
| 7 | DC | 8 | PBKS |
| 9 | LSG | 10 | GT |
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 instance, 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 (SRH, RCB, PBKS, GT).
Similarly, in Group B, RCB will play 2 matches against CSK, SRH, PBKS and GT. In the crossover, RCB will play 2 matches against RR and 1 match each against other teams in Group A.
Mumbai Indians:
Teams to play twice: KKR, RR, DC, LSG, CSK
Teams to play once: SRH, RCB, PBKS, GTKolkata Knight Riders:
Teams to play twice: MI, RR, DC, LSG, SRH
Teams to play once: CSK, RCB, PBKS, GTRajasthan Royals:
Teams to play twice: MI, KKR, DC, LSG, RCB
Teams to play once: CSK, SRH, PBKS, GTDelhi Capitals:
Teams to play twice: MI, KKR, RR, LSG, PBKS
Teams to play once: CSK, SRH, RCB, GTLucknow Supergiants:
Teams to play twice: MI, KKR, RR, DC, GT
Teams to play once: CSK, SRH, RCB, PBKSChennai Super Kings:
Teams to play twice: MI, SRH, RCB, PBKS, GT
Teams to play once: KKR, RR, DC, LSGSunrisers Hyderabad:
Teams to play twice: KKR, CSK, RCB, PBKS, GT
Teams to play once: MI, RR, DC, LSGRoyal Challengers Bangalore:
Teams to play twice: RR, CSK, SRH, PBKS, GT
Teams to play once: MI, KKR, DC, LSGPunjab Kings:
Teams to play twice: DC, CSK, SRH, RCB, GT
Teams to play once: MI, KKR, RR, LSGGujarat Titans:
Teams to play twice: LSG, CSK, SRH, RCB, PBKS
Teams to play once: MI, KKR, RR, DC
IPL 2022 - Schedule Matrix
| Team---> | MI | KKR | RR | DC | LSG | CSK | SRH | RCB | PBKS | GT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ↓Opponent | Season -> | 2022 | 2022 | 2022 | 2022 | 2022 | 2022 | 2022 | 2022 | 2022 | 2022 | |
| MI | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| KKR | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| RR | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| DC | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 14 |
| LSG | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 14 |
| CSK | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 14 |
| SRH | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 14 |
| RCB | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 14 |
| PBKS | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 14 |
| GT | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 14 |
| Total Matches / Team | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
Explainer for groups:
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.
More to follow