Official: TATA IPL 2022 to begin on 26th of March; RCB to play CSK, SRH, PBKS, GT, and RR twice

It's official! TATA IPL for the year 2022 will begin on Saturday, the 26th of March, and will conclude on the 29th of May. The league phase will consist of a total of 70 matches across 4 venues with each team playing 14 games. Several key decisions including the Virtual groups and the venues were taken during the IPL Governing Council meeting held on the 24th of February 2022. Here is everything you need to know as per the IPL Media Advisory.

Virtual groups

The teams have been split into 2 virtual groups of 5 each. Each team will play twice against the other 4 teams in their group and one more team from the other group. They will face the remaining 4 teams from the other group once. RCB has been placed in Group B alongside Chennai Superkings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Punjab Kings, and Gujarat Titans. We will also be playing twice against Rajasthan Royals from Group A.

The virtual groups formed based on the number of IPL titles won by them, and followed by the number of finals they have been a part of is as follows:

Group A: MI, KKR, RR, DC, LSG

Group B: CSK, SRH, RCB, PBKS, GT

Venues

All the 70 games of the league phase will be played out across 4 venues in the state of Maharashtra. The Wankhede stadium and the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai will host 20 games each, while the Brabourne stadium in Mumbai and the MCA International Stadium in Pune will host 15 games each.

Every team will be playing 4 games each at the Wankhede and the DY Patil Stadium, while the remaining 6 games will be split equally between the Brabourne and the MCA International stadium.

“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,” according to the Media advisory issued by the IPL.