BCCI announces new format for IPL 2022: Two groups of five, each team to play 14 games in league stage

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday (February 25) announced the new season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 will get underway from March 26. IPL 2022 will be played entirely in India and the 70 matches in the league stage will be played across a total of four venues in Mumbai and Pune.

The BCCI confirmed that the tournament will be played in a bio-secure environment and the decision to play the two league matches in only two cities was taken to avoid 'air travel which is considered as the major threat for the spread of COVID-19'. The venues for the play-off matches and the final will be declared later.

With ten teams in the fray now, IPL 2022 will be played in a completely new format. The BCCI on Friday confirmed that each of the ten teams will play 14 league matches like before but they have been divided into two groups. The division of the ten teams into two groups has been done on the basis of a seeding system determined by the number of IPL titles won or finals played by each team.

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While five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) headline Group A, four-time winners Chennai Super Kings (CSK) headline Group B. Mumbai Indians are joined by Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants in Group A while Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans form Group B along with CSK.

Here's what the two groups look like for IPL 2022:

Group A      Group B
MI                  CSK
KKR              SRH
RR                RCB
DC                PBKS
LSG               GT

IPL 2022's new format explained:

In the new format devised by the BCCI, each of the ten teams will play 14 matches each during the league stage of the tournament. Each team will play twice against the teams in their group, and against the team in the same row of the other group. They will play once against the remaining four teams.

For example, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians who share the top row in the two groups respectively will play against each other twice while also playing twice against the four teams in their respective groups. They both will play one game each against the remaining four teams in the other group.

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So CSK will play twice against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Punjab Kings, Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians. They will play one game each against Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants.

The final of IPL 2022 will be played on May 29. Each of the ten teams will play four matches at the Wankhede Stadium, and DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai while they will play three matches each at the MCA International Stadium and the Brabourne Stadium in Pune.