All You Need to Know About New IPL 2022 Format

After having magnificent Mega Auction for 15th edition of IPL i.e. TATA IPL 2022, BCCI announced new interesting format for the edition. Why?

Addition of 2 new teams:

If double round-robin format to be followed directly then total number of matches would be 2 x (9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1) = 90. Each team will be playing 18 matches.

That's massive jump of 34 matches from 56 matches when there were only 8 teams. 2 x ( 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1) = 56. That can make tournament very monotonous & lengthy for the obvious reason.

What's the new format?

Now all 10 teams are divided into 2 groups having 5 teams each. But they are not randomly placed in groups. Their performances (except of 2 new teams) so far are counted for the purpose.

First of all old 8 teams are ranked from 1 to 8 depending on their success in IPL history so far with 2 new teams placed randomly at bottom. 

1. Mumbai Indians (5 titles)

2. Chennai Superkings (4 titles)

3. Kolkata Knight Riders (3 titles)

4. Sunrises Hyderabad (1 title + 1 runner up; 6 playoffs)

5. Rajasthan Royals (1 title ; 4 playoffs)

6. Royal Challenger Benglore (3 runner up; 6 playoffs)

7. Delhi Capitals (1 runner up ; 6 playoffs)

8. Punjab Kings (1 runner up ; 2 playoffs)

9. Lucknow Supergiant 

10. Gujrat Titans

So Mumbai Indian winning title 5 times ranked first followed by Chennai Superkings winning 4 times. KKR winning the title twice ranked 3rd in the list.

Since SRH & RR won title once but SRH being managed to qualify for playoffs 6 times, it is ranked above RR. RCB being runner up 3 times ranked above DC. Though DC & PBKS runner up for 2 times DC had managed to qualify for playoffs more times than PBKS; hence ranked above PBKS.

So WINNER, RUNNER-UP, PLAYOFFS are the 'measuring' criteria in order for success of any IPL team.

Teams Allocation in group : 

Teams ranked 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 are allocated in GROUP A while teams having rank 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 are placed in GROUP B like below.

IPL 2022 GROUP A Teams:

1) Mumbai Indians (MI)

2) Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

3) Rajasthan Royals (RR)

4) Delhi Capitals (DC)

5) Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)

IPL 2022 GROUP B Teams:

1) Chennai Super Kings (CSK)

2) Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)

3) Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)

4) Punjab Kings (PBKS)

5) Gujarat Titans (GT)

Matches : 

Each team in group will play 2 matches with the teams of the same group like double round-robin. So there will be total 2 x 2 (4 + 3 + 2 + 1) = 40 such matches among group teams only. Additionally, each team from one group will play 2 matches with team having same rank in other group & 1 match each with rest of 4 teams of other group. In that way, total 5 x (2 + 1 + 1 + 1) = 30 more matches to be played. 

So total 40 + 30 = 70 matches to be played at the group stage.

Logic behind the format :

The most successful team of GROUP A is MI & that of GROUP B is CSK. The most successful team of GROUP A is playing 2 matches against the most successful team of GROUP B (reward for being successful 😉) & 1 match against each of 4 remaining team. So each team will be playing (2 x 4) + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 14 matches.

Similarly, the second most successful team of GROUP A will play 2 matches against the second most successful team of GROUP B & 1 match against each of 4 remaining teams.

Apart from those above matches each team is playing twice against each of own group member team.

For example, MI will play twice against own group teams & also twice against CSK of other group & once against rest 4 teams (SRH, RCB, PBKS, GT). 

GROUP A's third ranked RCB will play twice against own group teams & also twice against 3rd ranked RR in other group & once against rest of 4 teams (MI, KKR, DC, LSG) belonging to other group.

This way, each team of group will be playing 4 less matches compared to full double round-robin format (without groups). Hence, 5 x 4 = 20 less matches (i.e.70) compared to 90 matches of full double round Robin.

Playoffs/Semi Final/Final : 

BCCI hasn't announced the format of playoffs. 

In IPL 2011 too there were 10 teams competing & matches were played exactly like above format but at the time teams randomly placed in 2 groups. 

Top 4 teams among 10 (irrespective of groups) having more points and/or better NRR qualified for playoffs. Qualifier 1 played between top 2 with winner reaching to the final directly. Eliminator 1 played between teams ranked 3rd & 4th. Winner of Eliminator 1 played against loser of Qualifier 1 in match named Eliminator 2. Winner of this Eliminator 2 played against winner of Qualifier 1 in Final.