2022 Indian Premier League

Although earlier reports suggested the addition of two more teams in the previous season,[9][10][11] the BCCI at their 89th AGM announced that the expansion of the league would occur only in 2022.[12][13] In August 2021, the BCCI confirmed that two new franchises would join the league starting from the 2022 season. It was also announced that the franchises would be based in two of the six cities shortlisted by the BCCI; Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Dharamshala, Guwahati, Indore and Lucknow.[14][15]

In a closed bidding held on 25 October 2021, RPSG Group and CVC Capital won bids for the two teams.[16][17] RPSG paid ₹7,090 crore (US$930 million) for Lucknow, whereas CVC won Ahmedabad for ₹5,625 crore (US$740 million).[18][19] The Lucknow team was named as Lucknow Super Giants on 24 January 2022,[20] whereas the Ahmedabad team was named as Gujarat Titans on 9 February 2022.[21]

Vivo pulled out as the title sponsor of the tournament on 11 January 2022. Vivo, having previously pulled out as sponsors in 2020, had signed contract as title sponsors till 2023. The Tata Group was named as the title sponsor for the remainder of Vivo's contract.[22][23]

Each existing team was allowed to retain a maximum of four players, whereas the two new teams were allowed to pick a maximum of three players before the auction.[24] The retained players of the existing eight teams were announced on 30 November 2021,[25][26] and the two new teams named their players on 22 January 2022.[27][28]

The auction took place on 12 and 13 February 2022 in Bangalore.[29] Ishan Kishan was the most expensive buy of the auction, bought by Mumbai Indians for ₹15.25 crore (US$2.0 million).[30] The most expensive foreign player was Liam Livingstone, bought by Punjab Kings for ₹11.50 crore (US$1.5 million).[31]

With the introduction of the new teams, a ten-team format was created. This format consists of 74 matches and was introduced as retaining the previous format would result in 94 matches, significantly greater than the 60 matches from the previous season, where teams compete in a double round-robin tournament.

The ten teams are divided into two groups of five. In the group stage, each team plays 14 games: facing the other four teams in their group two times each (one home and one away game), four teams in the other group once, and the remaining team two times. The groups for the tournament were announced on 25 February 2022.[32]

Each team plays the team in the same row and the same column twice, and all others once. For instance, Mumbai Indians will play Chennai Super Kings and the other Group A teams twice but the other teams from Group B (Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans) only once. Similarly, Chennai will play Mumbai and the other Group B teams twice but all other teams from Group A only once. The format used is similar to the one used in 2011, with the only difference being that the teams were drawn according to seedings instead of being drawn randomly.[33] The figures in parenthesis denote the number of titles won by the team.

Three venues in Mumbai and one in Pune will host the league stage matches. The original schedule for the tournament had 20 matches each at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, with Mumbai's Brabourne Stadium and the MCA International Stadium in Pune hosting 15 matches each. Every team were scheduled to play four matches each at the Wankhede and the DY Patil Stadium, and three matches each at the Brabourne and the MCA Stadium.[34]

However, due to COVID-19 cases within the Delhi Capitals camp, two matches were relocated from the MCA International Stadium in Pune. The match on 20 April 2022 was moved to the Brabourne Stadium,[35] and the match on 22 April 2022 was moved to the Wankhede Stadium.[36]

Mumbai

Pune

Navi Mumbai

Kolkata

Ahmedabad

Venues of 2022 Indian Premier League

Mumbai		Navi Mumbai	Pune
Wankhede Stadium	Brabourne Stadium	DY Patil Stadium	MCA International Stadium
Capacity: 33,108	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 55,000	Capacity: 37,000
Kolkata		Ahmedabad
Eden Gardens		Narendra Modi Stadium
Capacity: 66,000		Capacity: 132,000

The schedule for the group stages was published on the official IPL website on 6 March 2022.[4]

The final is scheduled to take place on 29 May 2022.[41] The full schedule for the playoffs was announced on 23 April 2022.[42]

• Official website

• Series home at ESPNcricinfo