IPL 2022: Who is Most Likely to Win This Year?

The 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League is just around the corner and cricket fans can’t help but wonder which team will be reign supreme this year. The 15^th season of this prestigious cricket tournament is set to run from March 26 to May 29.

This year, the league has also come home to India after being held in the UAE last year. Local fans are surely looking forward to watching the matches in local time and even live, but this upcoming IPL also has plenty to offer. For the first time in a while, the league will also have 10 teams in total with Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans (Ahmedabad) as the new teams.

This season will have 70 matches in total and so there’s plenty for fans to look forward to. Whether the fans are only looking forward to seeing the season unfold or they want to get into IPL betting, what’s sure is that everyone can’t wait to see who will win this year.

Will it be the Defending Champions?

In the last season, Chennai Super Kings was able to get the championship. Many CSK fans are confident that the team will perform well this season as well. After all, CSK is known for its consistency.  The core team is also pretty solid with names like Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali, MS Dhoni, and Raturaj Gaikwad.

CSK was also able to purchase its former players. Aside from those four, the franchise was also able to purchase Deepak Chahar, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Uthappa, Mitchell Santner, and Dwayne Bravo. However, Faf du Plessis and Shardul Thakur are now part of different teams. Devon Conway is the one who’s expected to fill du Plessis’ shoes.

The first match this season will be between CSK and Kolkata Knight Riders. The possible starting XI of the team are the following:

• Devon Conway
• Ruturaj Gaikwad
• Moeen Ali
• Ambati Rayudu
• Shivam Dube
• Ravindra Jadeja
• MS Dhoni
• Chris Jordan
• Adam Milne
• KM Asif
• Tushar Deshpande

Here are the other players competing for CSK this year:

• Dwayne Bravo
• R Uthappa
• Deepak Chahar
• Tushar Deshpande
• Maheesh Theekshana
• Rajvardhan Hangargekar
• Simarjeet Singh
• Dwaine Pretorius
• Mitchell Santner
• Adam Milne
• Subhranshu Senapat
• Mukesh Choudhary
• Prashant Solanki
• C Hari Nishaanth
• N Jagadeesan
• K Bhagath Varma

The top 3 performers this season will likely be Gaikwad, Uthappa, and Ali. Check out their IPL 2021 stats and T20 performance last year:

With all those names, CSK has a solid team this year. There is a good chance that the team would reach the finals. If CSK wins again this season, it will be the fourth trophy that they will bring home.

Other Favorite Teams to Win This Season

Aside from CSK, many are also thinking about Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, and one of the two new teams, Lucknow Super Giants.

MI has won the IPL five teams and last year, the team’s performance was so-so. Still, with players like Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, and Jasprit Bumrah as its core players. Sharma is known as one of the most successful team captains in IPL history. He’s been the team’s leader when the team secured all five trophies and fans haven’t lost any faith in him.

Meanwhile, RR has only won once since the IPL's existence. RR’s lineup this year makes people think they have a good chance of making it past the group stages. Some of the names who will be playing for RR this year are Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Even if LSG is a newcomer this season, many are already giving solid arguments that the team has a great potential of winning the tournament. Former Punjab Kings player KL Rahul is now the captain of the team and he was able to pull Punjab Kings up with his batting last year. He will be joined by names like Marcus Stoinis, Ravi Bishnois, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, and Krunal Pandya.

Now, even if there are already favorites when it comes to who will dominate the upcoming season, there are also plenty of people saying that this season is the most open in a long time. The refreshed lineup of the existing 8 teams and the solid purchases made by the new teams somewhat make all teams have a good chance this season. Luckily, the start of the 2022 IPL is not far from now and we can all just watch how this season will unfold.

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