Last year’s finalists, Champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and runners-up Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), will be back at it again to kick-start the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League. The 15th edition of the IPL will run from 26th of March till the 29th of May. Entire group stage of the tournament will take place in Maharashtra this year, to minimize players’ travel during Covid.
Back in October 2021 in Dubai, CSK had gotten the better of KKR quite comfortably in the end to claim their 4th IPL title. However, the teams set to clash at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium will be quite different to the XIs that took the field at the Dubai International Stadium just over 5 months ago.
New Captains at the helm
In his typically understated way, MS Dhoni handed over the captaincy to all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on the eve of the competition. Jadeja becomes only the 2nd player in IPL history to become the full-time captain of Chennai Super Kings (3rd player to captain them overall, with Suresh Raina having filled in for Dhoni on occasions previously). This will be the first time when Jadeja will be captaining a team in the competition.
Just like CSK, Kolkata will also be taking the field under a new captain in Shreyas Iyer. Having decided not to retain, or even buy Eoin Morgan at the mega IPL auction, KKR really wanted to get Shreyas as their captain. They eventually got him for 12.25 Crores, making him one of the most expensive buys in the auction. Shreyas has previously captained Delhi Capitals, even leading them to the IPL Final in 2020.
The Squads
Chennai, as they have always done, have tried to keep their core together even during the recent auction. Apart from retaining MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Ruturaj Gaikwad, the team also bought back their regulars Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu and Mitchell Santner. While Moeen will be unavailable for the first match due to issues with his Visa, they have a ready replacement in the highly rated Devon Conway who joined them this year.
Complete Chennai Super Kings Squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Robin Uthappa, Devon Conway, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja(c), Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni(w), Dwayne Bravo, Chris Jordan, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Maheesh Theekshana, Adam Milne, Mitchell Santner, Tushar Deshpande, Hari Nishanth, N Jagadeesan, Subhranshu Senapati, Prashant Solanki, Mukesh Choudhary, KM Asif, Simarjeet Singh, Bhagath Varma
KKR were dealt a blow ahead of the IPL when opening batsman Alex Hales decided to pull out of the competition citing bubble fatigue. His replacement, Aaron Finch, will miss the early part of the competition as well. Kiwi fast bowler Tim Southee will also be missing after his wedding recently. They will once again be looking at their West Indian duo, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, to lead their charge along with other regulars from last season, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer. With the arrival of Ajinkya Rahane, along with Captain Shreyas Iyer, they have added experience to their batting order following the departure of experienced pros like Dinesh Karthik and Eoin Morgan.
Complete Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer(c), Sam Billings(w), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Chamika Karunaratne, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakaravarthy, Umesh Yadav, Rasikh Salam, Mohammad Nabi, Sheldon Jackson, Baba Indrajith, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Pratham Singh, Abhijeet Tomar, Aman Hakim Khan, Tim Southee, Ashok Sharma, Ramesh Kumar
New IPL Rules
- The DRS reviews have been increased from 1 to 2 for each team. Earlier teams were allowed only 1 review in an innings.
- As per MCC‘s latest rules, new batsman will take strike after a catch is taken even if the batsmen cross while the catch is taken.
- Matches will be rescheduled if a team doesn’t have 12 fit players for a match due to any Coronavirus breakout in the squad.
- If conditions don’t permit a Super Over, the champion will be decided based on the teams’ league standings after the group stage.
