IPL Schedule 2022 IN ENGLISH.......

IPL Schedule 2022 IN ENGLISH

 I will start this show with a 'Valimai'yaana (strong) welcome. You guys already know by now that this year's IPL will be having 10 teams. So, we can call this show an IPL update just like 'Valimai' update now that 'Valimai' movie has been released. So many of you have asked me whether I have seen the movie and what was my take and everything. Sadly, I never got the opportunity to see the movie. Due to the niggles I had in South Africa, I had to get into a few fitness tests and so, I have reached Mohali earlier than expected ahead of the test series against Sri Lanka. The test match team is fully assembled here. Team India is currently playing T20s against Sri Lanka as I record this video. India has won the series already. You might see this video two days later. Anyway, I will get the show started. We have had this similar format when we had two new teams in Kochi Tuskers and Pune Warriors IPL is returning to a similar format this year.

  Usually, we won't have these many games happening. We have 74 games this year. 74 games in total which are inclusive of the 4 playoff games. Starts on March 26th and goes on till the end of May. So, we have got a larger window this year. There is a journalist called Lawrence Booth from England. He tweeted recently about this fixture. Usually, IPL begins on 7th or 8th April and ends on 26th May. Why do I remember this date? Because 26th May is a special day for me. It's my wife's birthday. So, IPL normally ends around the last week of May. This year, the IPL ends around the same time. But it starts almost two weeks earlier. What are the disadvantages because of this two-week earlier start when it comes to other countries? They would have already scheduled their international calendar. For instance, we have England and Australia are playing few games against different countries during the IPL. Even Sri Lanka has few international matches during the IPL window. But mostly, South Africa, Australia, England, and New Zealand, schedule their international games based on IPL fixtures. This year, New Zealand are not having any international matches during IPL. Lawrence Booth had tweeted about IPL fixtures saying it takes almost one-third of the year. Even the English Premier League happens and almost has a six-month window. The players will have more gaps between matches and they will have only one or two matches per week. Of course, cricket getting to that stage will always remain a huge question mark. But IPL as a league has all the potential to take cricket into that stage for sure. And all the cricket viewers, cricket nations, stakeholders know this already. But because of this IPL window, there might be a chance that other formats of international cricket or world events might get shortened. For example, while EPL is taking place in football, there will be simultaneous leagues taking place in Italy, Spain, etc. And they will have a champions league as well. And four years once, they have a FIFA World Cup as well. Whereas in cricket, we have a 50-over World Cup, World Test Championship, T20 World Cup, and add to that, we need to have windows for all these leagues as well, like IPL, PSL, T10 league, CPL, BBL, etc. In England, they have Hundred-ball competition and add to that, they have a T20 Blast as well. There are so many leagues being started every year. IPL has been under the radar for so many years now. Suddenly, some random person will say something bad about IPL without any reason. Imagine the situation in 2008 or 2010. There were only 20-25 cricketers who would be in the Indian setup for representing Team India. Even when I started, my parents and grandparents asked me if cricket will help me to support financially. Only 15-20 or 25 cricketers will get opportunities in a 10-year span. But now, because of the IPL, at least 75-80 Indian cricketers are getting opportunities every year. It doesn't stop with the IPL alone. Players get opportunities to play in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and showcase their talent there as well. In addition to that, players also get opportunities in Media, coaching setup, or some other ecosystem setup that gives them opportunities. That is a massive tick for IPL. You might ask me what new update am I gonna give you about IPL. As I said, when Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers were added, the IPL was divided into two groups at that time as well. Even this year, the ten teams have been divided into two groups. This year, IPL begins on March 26th and ends on May 29th. A longer window and I have explained enough about the window already. The first team in Group A: Mumbai Indians. The first team in Group B: CSK No rocket science to find out the reason why MI and CSK are placed first in both the groups. They have won the IPL titles more times when compared to the other teams. And that's why they are placed in two different groups. This means MI and CSK won't play this year? Absolutely not. Both of them will play twice this year as well. MI vs CSK is a looked-out for derby and so, the league won't deny that opportunity for the fans. MI'S partner in Group A are KKR since they have won the title twice. Since there isn't any other franchise who have won the title twice, we have SRH placed in Group B who have won the title once. So, we have seen two teams from each group now. Who is the third team from Group A? It's us, Rajasthan Royals. The team that won the inaugural edition of the IPL. Since no other team has won the IPL yet, rest of the teams were decided based on how many times they have qualified for the finals. So, in Group B, we have RCB who have qualified for the finals many times and have also qualified for the playoffs. Remaining four teams haven't won the IPL as well. We have the northern derby in Delhi Capitals placed in Group A and Punjab Kings (PKS) in Group B. The difference between DC and PKS is that, in the last three years, Delhi Capitals has become a consistent side. They have missed the tile by a whisker. Punjab Kings, despite having produced many great players, haven't really had consistent years in IPL. But this year, they have formed a data-driven support staff under Anil Bhai and have put together a heavyweight squad and are looking threatening. They have brought in Dan Weston as their support staff. He was with Birmingham Phoenix in Hundred-ball competition last year. He is someone who believes massively on Data Science and so, Anil Bhai has brought him in. I saw few of his posts in LinkedIn. The remaining two teams are, of course, the two new teams and they have placed them in one group each. Lucknow Super Giants in Group A and Gujarat Titans in Group B. So, the 5 teams in a group will play against each other twice. For instance, MI will play KKR, RR, DC and LSG twice. The usual norm when we had 8 teams was that each team will play the other 7 teams twice on a home and away basis. The home-and-away concept has been hit this year. But I will get to that part when I talk about the venue and grounds. So, 8 matches are done when each team plays twice against the remaining four teams from their group. The reason why the ten teams were divided into groups was that otherwise, teams would have to play 18 games in total. Then, we would have required an even larger window and that's why we are having this group mechanism this year. So, out of the 5 teams from the other group, play only once against 4 out of the 5 teams. Whether teams in Group A won't play the teams in Group B? No, that's not the case here. When Group A play amongst themselves, they would have played 8 teams in total. To get to the same 14 matches per team format, they have made each teams from Group A to play 4 teams from Group B only once. For example, MI will play 4 teams from Group B in RCB, SRH, GT, and PKS only once. Let's not take CSK into account here. Because they will play CSK alone twice. How will they select the opponent against whom they will play twice from the other group? We will see that once we talk about the schedule. I guess there will be some randomness when it comes to deciding this. For instance, Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings are northern derby and so, they might make them play twice. Likewise, the two new teams might be made to play against each other twice. Like we have tag team partners in WWE, the two new teams will be playing each other twice and will play the rest of the 4 teams from the other group only once. They have beautifully scheduled these fixtures knowing very well that CSK vs MI, and CSK vs RCB are all looked-forward fixtures from fans. So, CSK will play both RCB and MI twice and so, that's somehow beautifully sorted. We will not have MI vs RCB happening twice this year. So, maybe, KKR and RCB might be clubbed and will be made to play twice. All the games are in Maharashtra this year. This year, they have also completely avoided flight travel. They feel that since we had flight travels last year, players had so many touching points and contact points and that's how the virus entered despite having a bio-bubble. So, this year, they have decided to have everything under one state (in Maharashtra) so that we can avoid flight travel and with less complications. Why can't this be done in Dubai instead of Maharashtra? Because we have a beautiful structure in Maharashtra. Since 40% crowds were allowed for the recently concluded series, we are expecting crowds for IPL as well. Because we feel the impact of COVID has come down. Of course, fingers crossed since we felt the same thing last time as well, but were proven wrong. In Dubai, we had only 3 grounds with Sharjah being a smaller ground. Whereas, in Maharashtra, we have 4 grounds. But here also, 2 out of 4 grounds are really small. What are the 4 grounds? 1. Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai Indians' home ground. We will wait and watch how many games they get to play there at their home venue. 2. Brabourne stadium in Mumbai. Brabourne stadium and Wankhede stadium are like twin brothers, as in, situated almost right next to each other. Wankhede Stadium is a very small ground when compared to Brabourne Stadium. But the practice pitches in Brabourne Stadium will ensure that we have a fast traveling outfield. So, we can see some high-scoring encounters on both these grounds. So, what about the other two grounds? We will have low-scoring thrillers or what? Of course, not. Even the other two grounds will have high-scoring encounters. 3. DY Patil Cricket Stadium. It is situated outside the main city of Mumbai. In fact, they conduct DY Patil T20 tournament every year and the players who are mostly Mumbai Indians' scouts exhibit their skills playing this tournament. In fact, Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan have all played this tournament. This is an important tournament. In fact, one of our corporate teams from Chennai might go and play in that tournament this year. Usually, the tournament starts on the first week of March. We will see how they conduct this tournament this year. 4. MCA Stadium in Pune. It was the home ground for Pune Super Giants and that's going to be our fourth venue this year. So, the 70 games are split across these 4 venues. Where will the playoffs and finals happen? One of the better stadiums in India with terrific infrastructure and everything. So, my guess is that the playoffs and finals will take place in Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. Eden Gardens and Wankhede Stadium were considered as our hubs earlier. We don't have many controllable factors on this ground. We don't have dew factor playing spoilsport or short boundaries as a major hindrance. We have started playing more on these huge grounds. Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow is another amazing stadium. Huge outfields that will offer something for the bowlers. Likewise, Narendra Modi Stadium is another big ground with lots of controllables which is a good direction. So, what do we know about these 4 grounds? 3 out of these 4 grounds are international test cricket venues. Pune, Wankhede and Brabourne. All these three stadiums have hosted international cricket matches. Whereas, we have never had any international matches in DY Patil Stadium. IPL matches have taken place. So, we will start from DY Patil Stadium. Despite not having conducted any international ODI or test matches, I have fond memories of that ground. As a CSK player, in 2010, we won our final and semi-final games on that stadium and in fact, in semifinals, I bowled 4 overs and conceded only 14 runs taking the crucial wicket of Andrew Symonds Suresh Raina will hug me saying, "Andrew Symonds could have taken the game away from us. What a crucial wicket!" A memorable period for me since that was the time I started bowling with the new-ball in the powerplay as well. We (CSK) will play another terrific game against Mumbai Indians in the finals as well. Both were kinda 160-160 games. I guess we will score more against Mumbai. I still remember that extraordinary knock played by Raina in the finals. I guess they will drop few catches of him and he will ride through that extremely well. CSK fans are extremely saddened after seeing Raina go unsold this year. Obviously, Raina is a fighter. He is a very good cricketer. I am confident that he will work hard and come back into the Indian Team very soon. All the best, Raina. I can't stop with the CSK praises alone. Because DY Patil stadium has been really good for my new team RR as well. RR won their first title in 2008 at the same venue as well. So, Maharashtra is a good venue for RR as well. Obviously, it is a great venue for MI as well. Speaking of MI, time to talk about Wankhede Stadium. What was the most memorable game for MI at Wankhede? Well, when none of them gave a chance for them to qualify after a poor Dubai-leg, MI had to chase around 190-odd in 14 overs to qualify for the eliminator and boy, what a chase that was! Corey Anderson set it up perfectly and finished perfectly by Aditya Tare. James Faulkner will bowl a cute full toss in the final ball and pictures of current Indian coach Rahul Dravid throwing his cap down in anger is still fresh in everyone's memory. Moving on to Brabourne Stadium which is almost right next to Wankhede. My fond memories with Brabourne Stadium is when I played for CSK and our ex-player Michael Hussey played for MI that year and we played our eliminator game against MI and won that game. I took Michael Hussey's wicket that game. He will be caught at deep square-leg superbly, by Ben Hilfenhaus I don't remember exactly. But that was another memorable game for me at Brabourne Stadium. CSK'S comeback year in 2018 had a few memorable games at the Pune Stadium. When teams were struggling to chase against SRH that year, Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu dealt Rashid Khan & co with ease. Rayudu scored a memorable 100 and Shane Watson scored a terrific 50. They chased 180-odd chase very easily. These are few memorable games from these 4 stadiums where IPL will take place this year. Which teams will use these 4 venues to their advantage this year? This IPL might end up being a high-scoring one. Of course, most IPL seasons are high-scoring. But last year in Dubai, we didn't have so many high-scoring games. In fact, most of them were around 160 to 170-odd. But this season, DY Patil and Brabourne are a bit longer grounds compared to the other two. Anyway, we can expect a high-scoring IPL and a summer Dhamaka guaranteed. Even the school kids will be relieved after being allowed to go to school after a long time. Hope you guys enjoy the IPL in Maharashtra this year. As I asked in the earlier part of the show, whether IPL will go the EPL route? Whether we will get a larger window like EPL? Please say your opinion in the comments section. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. I am sure you guys would have enjoyed this episode as much as you guys enjoyed the auctions. Hope you enjoy IPL as well. But firstly, support Team India for our test series against Sri Lanka. Then we will get to IPL. Thank you. By the way, all the CSK fans, please support RR as well. RR is already a likable team for many. But still, you guys can chip in as well. Thank you.

  Usually, we won't have these many games happening. We have 74 games this year. 74 games in total which are inclusive of the 4 playoff games. Starts on March 26th and goes on till the end of May. So, we have got a larger window this year. There is a journalist called Lawrence Booth from England. He tweeted recently about this fixture. Usually, IPL begins on 7th or 8th April and ends on 26th May. Why do I remember this date? Because 26th May is a special day for me. It's my wife's birthday. So, IPL normally ends around the last week of May. This year, the IPL ends around the same time. But it starts almost two weeks earlier. What are the disadvantages because of this two-week earlier start when it comes to other countries? They would have already scheduled their international calendar. For instance, we have England and Australia are playing few games against different countries during the IPL. Even Sri Lanka has few international matches during the IPL window. But mostly, South Africa, Australia, England, and New Zealand, schedule their international games based on IPL fixtures. This year, New Zealand are not having any international matches during IPL.
    Imagine the situation in 2008 or 2010. There were only 20-25 cricketers who would be in the Indian setup for representing Team India. Even when I started, my parents and grandparents asked me if cricket will help me to support financially. Only 15-20 or 25 cricketers will get opportunities in a 10-year span. But now, because of the IPL, at least 75-80 Indian cricketers are getting opportunities every year. It doesn't stop with the IPL alone. Players get opportunities to play in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and showcase their talent there as well. In addition to that, players also get opportunities in Media, coaching setup, or some other ecosystem setup that gives them opportunities. That is a massive tick for IPL. You might ask me what new update am I gonna give you about IPL. As I said, when Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers were added, the IPL was divided into two groups at that time as well. Even this year, the ten teams have been divided into two groups. This year, IPL begins on March 26th and ends on May 29th. A longer window and I have explained enough about the window already. The first team in Group A: Mumbai Indians. The first team in Group B: CSK No rocket science to find out the reason why MI and CSK are placed first in both the groups. They have won the IPL titles more times when compared to the other teams. And that's why they are placed in two different groups. This means MI and CSK won't play this year? Absolutely not. Both of them will play twice this year as well. MI vs CSK is a looked-out for derby and so, the league won't deny that opportunity for the fans. MI'S partner in Group A are KKR since they have won the title twice. Since there isn't any other franchise who have won the title twice, we have SRH placed in Group B who have won the title once. So, we have seen two teams from each group now. Who is the third team from Group A? It's us, Rajasthan Royals. The team that won the inaugural edition of the IPL. Since no other team has won the IPL yet, rest of the teams were decided based on how many times they have qualified for the finals. So, in Group B, we have RCB who have qualified for the finals many times and have also qualified for the playoffs. Remaining four teams haven't won the IPL as well. We have the northern derby in Delhi Capitals placed in Group A and Punjab Kings (PKS) in Group B. The difference between DC and PKS is that, in the last three years, Delhi Capitals has become a consistent side. They have missed the tile by a whisker. Punjab Kings, despite having produced many great players, haven't really had consistent years in IPL. But this year, they have formed a data-driven support staff under Anil Bhai and have put together a heavyweight squad and are looking threatening. They have brought in Dan Weston as their support staff. He was with Birmingham Phoenix in Hundred-ball competition last year. He is someone who believes massively on Data Science and so, Anil Bhai has brought him in. I saw few of his posts in LinkedIn. The remaining two teams are, of course, the two new teams and they have placed them in one group each. Lucknow Super Giants in Group A and Gujarat Titans in Group B. So, the 5 teams in a group will play against each other twice. For instance, MI will play KKR, RR, DC and LSG twice. The usual norm when we had 8 teams was that each team will play the other 7 teams twice on a home and away basis. The home-and-away concept has been hit this year. But I will get to that part when I talk about the venue and grounds. So, 8 matches are done when each team plays twice against the remaining four teams from their group. The reason why the ten teams were divided into groups was that otherwise, teams would have to play 18 games in total. Then, we would have required an even larger window and that's why we are having this group mechanism this year. So, out of the 5 teams from the other group, play only once against 4 out of the 5 teams. Whether teams in Group A won't play the teams in Group B? No, that's not the case here. When Group A play amongst themselves, they would have played 8 teams in total. To get to the same 14 matches per team format, they have made each teams from Group A to play 4 teams from Group B only once. For example, MI will play 4 teams from Group B in RCB, SRH, GT, and PKS only once. Let's not take CSK into account here. Because they will play CSK alone twice. How will they select the opponent against whom they will play twice from the other group? We will see that once we talk about the schedule. I guess there will be some randomness when it comes to deciding this. For instance, Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings are northern derby and so, they might make them play twice. Likewise, the two new teams might be made to play against each other twice. Like we have tag team partners in WWE, the two new teams will be playing each other twice and will play the rest of the 4 teams from the other group only once. They have beautifully scheduled these fixtures knowing very well that CSK vs MI, and CSK vs RCB are all looked-forward fixtures from fans. So, CSK will play both RCB and MI twice and so, that's somehow beautifully sorted. We will not have MI vs RCB happening twice this year. So, maybe, KKR and RCB might be clubbed and will be made to play twice. All the games are in Maharashtra this year. This year, they have also completely avoided flight travel. They feel that since we had flight travels last year, players had so many touching points and contact points and that's how the virus entered despite having a bio-bubble. So, this year, they have decided to have everything under one state (in Maharashtra) so that we can avoid flight travel and with less complications. Why can't this be done in Dubai instead of Maharashtra? Because we have a beautiful structure in Maharashtra. Since 40% crowds were allowed for the recently concluded series, we are expecting crowds for IPL as well. Because we feel the impact of COVID has come down. Of course, fingers crossed since we felt the same thing last time as well, but were proven wrong. In Dubai, we had only 3 grounds with Sharjah being a smaller ground. Whereas, in Maharashtra, we have 4 grounds. But here also, 2 out of 4 grounds are really small. What are the 4 grounds? 1. Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai Indians' home ground. We will wait and watch how many games they get to play there at their home venue. 2. Brabourne stadium in Mumbai. Brabourne stadium and Wankhede stadium are like twin brothers, as in, situated almost right next to each other. Wankhede Stadium is a very small ground when compared to Brabourne Stadium. But the practice pitches in Brabourne Stadium will ensure that we have a fast traveling outfield. So, we can see some high-scoring encounters on both these grounds. So, what about the other two grounds? We will have low-scoring thrillers or what? Of course, not. Even the other two grounds will have high-scoring encounters. 3. DY Patil Cricket Stadium. It is situated outside the main city of Mumbai. In fact, they conduct DY Patil T20 tournament every year and the players who are mostly Mumbai Indians' scouts exhibit their skills playing this tournament. In fact, Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan have all played this tournament. This is an important tournament. In fact, one of our corporate teams from Chennai might go and play in that tournament this year. Usually, the tournament starts on the first week of March. We will see how they conduct this tournament this year. 4. MCA Stadium in Pune. It was the home ground for Pune Super Giants and that's going to be our fourth venue this year. So, the 70 games are split across these 4 venues. Where will the playoffs and finals happen? One of the better stadiums in India with terrific infrastructure and everything. So, my guess is that the playoffs and finals will take place in Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. Eden Gardens and Wankhede Stadium were considered as our hubs earlier. We don't have many controllable factors on this ground. We don't have dew factor playing spoilsport or short boundaries as a major hindrance. We have started playing more on these huge grounds. Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow is another amazing stadium. Huge outfields that will offer something for the bowlers. Likewise, Narendra Modi Stadium is another big ground with lots of controllables which is a good direction. So, what do we know about these 4 grounds? 3 out of these 4 grounds are international test cricket venues. Pune, Wankhede and Brabourne. All these three stadiums have hosted international cricket matches. Whereas, we have never had any international matches in DY Patil Stadium. IPL matches have taken place. So, we will start from DY Patil Stadium. Despite not having conducted any international ODI or test matches, I have fond memories of that ground. As a CSK player, in 2010, we won our final and semi-final games on that stadium and in fact, in semifinals, I bowled 4 overs and conceded only 14 runs taking the crucial wicket of Andrew Symonds Suresh Raina will hug me saying, "Andrew Symonds could have taken the game away from us. What a crucial wicket!" A memorable period for me since that was the time I started bowling with the new-ball in the powerplay as well. We (CSK) will play another terrific game against Mumbai Indians in the finals as well. Both were kinda 160-160 games. I guess we will score more against Mumbai. I still remember that extraordinary knock played by Raina in the finals. I guess they will drop few catches of him and he will ride through that extremely well. CSK fans are extremely saddened after seeing Raina go unsold this year. Obviously, Raina is a fighter. He is a very good cricketer. I am confident that he will work hard and come back into the Indian Team very soon. All the best, Raina. I can't stop with the CSK praises alone. Because DY Patil stadium has been really good for my new team RR as well. RR won their first title in 2008 at the same venue as well. So, Maharashtra is a good venue for RR as well. Obviously, it is a great venue for MI as well. Speaking of MI, time to talk about Wankhede Stadium. What was the most memorable game for MI at Wankhede? Well, when none of them gave a chance for them to qualify after a poor Dubai-leg, MI had to chase around 190-odd in 14 overs to qualify for the eliminator and boy, what a chase that was! Corey Anderson set it up perfectly and finished perfectly by Aditya Tare. James Faulkner will bowl a cute full toss in the final ball and pictures of current Indian coach Rahul Dravid throwing his cap down in anger is still fresh in everyone's memory. Moving on to Brabourne Stadium which is almost right next to Wankhede. My fond memories with Brabourne Stadium is when I played for CSK and our ex-player Michael Hussey played for MI that year and we played our eliminator game against MI and won that game. I took Michael Hussey's wicket that game. He will be caught at deep square-leg superbly, by Ben Hilfenhaus I don't remember exactly. But that was another memorable game for me at Brabourne Stadium. CSK'S comeback year in 2018 had a few memorable games at the Pune Stadium. When teams were struggling to chase against SRH that year, Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu dealt Rashid Khan & co with ease. Rayudu scored a memorable 100 and Shane Watson scored a terrific 50. They chased 180-odd chase very easily. These are few memorable games from these 4 stadiums where IPL will take place this year. Which teams will use these 4 venues to their advantage this year? This IPL might end up being a high-scoring one. Of course, most IPL seasons are high-scoring. But last year in Dubai, we didn't have so many high-scoring games. In fact, most of them were around 160 to 170-odd. But this season, DY Patil and Brabourne are a bit longer grounds compared to the other two. Anyway, we can expect a high-scoring IPL and a summer Dhamaka guaranteed. Even the school kids will be relieved after being allowed to go to school after a long time. Hope you guys enjoy the IPL in Maharashtra this year. As I asked in the earlier part of the show, whether IPL will go the EPL route? Whether we will get a larger window like EPL? Please say your opinion in the comments section. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. I am sure you guys would have enjoyed this episode as much as you guys enjoyed the auctions. Hope you enjoy IPL as well. But firstly, support Team India for our test series against Sri Lanka. Then we will get to IPL. Thank you. By the way, all the CSK fans, please support RR as well. RR is already a likable team for many. But still, you guys can chip in as well. Thank you.