New Delhi | Jagran Sports Desk: As the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL 2022) is set to begin from March 26, the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) on Friday released the groupings for the upcoming season. As per the format released by the BCCI, the IPL 2022 will see a tweak as 10 teams will be divided into groups of five but the number of matches per side will remain 14.

As per groupings released by BCCI, group A comprises Mumbai Indians, KKR, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals, and Lucknow Supergiants. Group B will have Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Punjab Kings, and Gujarat Titans.

Over the years, the IPL has been an eight-team affair where each team played each other twice at the round-robin league stage to complete 14 games. However, this group league format is not new in IPL as it was once used a decade back when Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers Kerala were part of the league.

How the teams are divided into groups:

The rows and columns of the groups (A and B) has been done as per IPL performances --- the number of titles and number of finals reached. Firstly, the groupings have been done as per IPL performance where group A has MI (Team 1) with five titles as the first team. Correspondingly, in group B, the first team is CSK (Team 2) which has four titles.

Team 3 is again placed in group A and that is KKR with two titles and the corresponding Team 4 placed in group B is SRH with a sole title. Team 5 again in group A is Rajasthan Royals (1 title) and its corresponding Team 6 in group B is RCB, which has played three finals.

Team 7 in group A is DC, which has one final appearance and two play-offs while corresponding Team 8 in group B is Punjab Kings with one final appearance. Newcomers, Lucknow Super Giants is Team 9 in group A and Gujarat Titans is corresponding team 10 in group B.

Each team to play 14 games:

Each team plays the other teams in its group twice, which makes it eight matches. The balance six games they play against the five teams in the other group. So for MI from group A will play two games CSK which is its equivalent team in group B and one match against the other four teams. Similarly, KKR, the second-placed team in A plays SRH in group B twice and all other teams once. This is how teams attain (8+6) 14 group league games.