During the league phase of the 2022 IPL, seedings will be assigned to the 10 clubs and they will be divided into two “virtual” groups. The seedings are determined by how many times a team has won the IPL or advanced to the finals. Mumbai Indians, the five-time champions, will head Group A with the top overall seeding, while Chennai Super Kings, the four-time champions, will lead Group B with the No. 2 seeding.
Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals, and Lucknow Super Giants are the other teams in Group A. Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Punjab Kings, and Gujarat Titans are the teams in Group B, in that order.
The IPL announced the new format on Friday, saying that during the league phase of a season that now spans 70 games, the 10 clubs will play a total of 14 matches – seven at home and seven away. Ten of the 14 games will be home-and-away matchups against the other four teams in the group, with two matches against the team from the other group’s corresponding row (organised by seedings). Mumbai, for example, will face the other four clubs in Group A – Knight Riders, Royals, Capitals, and Super Giants – twice each, as well as the Super Kings from Group B.
They will play each of the remaining teams in the other group once (for a total of 14 games), with home and away games split evenly.
This season, though, the home-and-away format will be irrelevant because the IPL has decided to limit the league phase to four sites spread over two cities: Mumbai and Pune. During the league phase, the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium on the outskirts of Pune will hold 15 matches, while Mumbai will host the majority of the matches (55).At Wankhede Stadium and DY Patil Sports Academy, each team will play four times, and at Brabourne Stadium and the MCA Stadium, each team will play three times. While the IPL schedule will be finalised and announced in early March, it is unclear whether Mumbai will be able to host any matches at the Wankhede.
The format is similar to that used in 2011, when a total of ten teams competed for the first time. The clubs were divided into two groups, each having 70 league games and four playoff games, and all of the teams were rated in the same points table. Each team played 14 games during the league phase.Each team faced the other four teams in their group twice (eight matches), four teams from the other group once (four matches, either home or away), and the remaining team from the other group twice (eight matches). The configuration of the groups, as well as who played whom in each group, was determined by a random draw once or twice.The IPL has announced that the event will take place between March 26 and May 29 in 2022. It will commence 10 days after the conclusion of India’s home Test series against Sri Lanka. That means the IPL will ignore the RM Lodha Committee’s suggestion of a two-week buffer between any international series or tournament India participated in and the IPL.