IPL 2022 Tips: Mumbai Indians to reclaim their T20 crown

Saturday 26th March sees the return of the premier T20 franchise competition in the world, the Indian Premier League and our resident cricket guru Adam Roberts has all the info you need for this exciting competition from the sub-continent. Following on from his successful predictions of BBL winners Perth Scorchers and PSL winners Lahore Qalanders, can he go for the triple? We'll be regularly updating the page with info, odds and tips so bookmark it for all your IPL betting needs.

What is the Indian Premier League?

2022 Indian Premier League (also known as IPL 15, or for sponsorship reasons, Tata IPL 2022) will be the fifteenth season of the Indian Premier League, the annual Twenty20 franchise cricket league that was started in 2007 by the BCCI. 

When does the competition take place and where can I watch it?

IPL 2022 runs from the 26th March right through to the final which is due to take place on the 29th May. All games will be shown live and exclusively in the UK by Sky Sports

What is the Format?

The IPL has been expanded this season, from eight to ten franchises, with the addition of the Lucknow Super Giants and the Gujarat Titans. They join the existing eight teams and will be separated into two groups of five:

Group A
(1.) Mumbai Indians
(3.) Kolkata Knight Riders
(5.) Rajasthan Royals
(7.) Delhi Capitals
(9.) Lucknow Super Giants

Group B
(2.) Chennai Super Kings
(4.) Sunrisers Hyderabad
(6.) Royal Challengers Bangalore
(8.) Punjab Kings
(10.) Gujarat Titans

Each team will play twice against each team in their group, once against the teams in the other group and twice against their corresponding group ranking, e.g 1 v 2 , 3 v 4 ... 9 v 10 etc. 

The top four teams in the league will qualify for the playoffs.

As a result the number of fixtures has been increased from 60 to 74 and the tournament now lasts more than two months rather than seven weeks. An increase which has set alarm bells ringing in the cricket world as players have chosen to participate at this tournament rather than for their test teams.. 

Former Sky Sports Commentator David Lloyd recently stated:

“The alarm balls should be ringing. Already, South Africa’s full attack is not available for upcoming Tests against Bangladesh, and New Zealand have 12 men ruled out of selection versus Netherlands.”

 “Make no mistake, the IPL is disrupting the traditional international programme.”

The games will be played in a biosecurity bubble to try to avoid the situation in previous years where the matches have had to be played behind closed doors and in the UAE. As a result all 70 league stage matches will be played across four venues in Mumbai and Pune.

Mumbai – Wankhede Stadium 20 Matches
Mumbai – Brabourne Stadium (CCI) 15 Matches
Mumbai – DY Patil Stadium 20 Matches
Pune – MCA International Stadium 15 Matches
 
All IPL franchises will play 4 matches each at Wankhede Stadium and DY Patil Stadium while 3 matches each will be played at Brabourne Stadium (CCI) and MCA International Stadium, Pune

Who are the Franchises?

Mumbai Indians

Coach: Mahela Jayawardene
Captain: Rohit Sharma
Best Finish: Champions (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020)
Last Season: 5th

Squad - Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Ramandeep Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Dewlad Brevis, Rahul Buddhi, Kieron Pollard, Tim David, Fabian Allen, Hrithik Shokeen, Arjun Tendulkar, Sanjay Yadav, Daniel Sams, Aryan Juyal (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshad Khan, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Tymal Mills, Riley Meredith, Murugan Ashwin, Basil Thampi

Chennai Super Kings

Coach: Stephen Fleming
Captain: Ravindra Jadeya
Best Finish: Champions (2010, 2011, 2018, 2011)
Last Season: Champions

Squad - Ravindra Jadeja(c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubhransh Senapati, Hari Nishanth, Moeen Ali, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (wk) , Dwaine Pretorius, Bhagath Verma, Mitchell Santner, Robin Uthappa, Devon Conway, N Jagadeesan, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana, Simranjeet Singh, Chris Jordan, Adam Milne, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki, Rajvardhan Hangargekar

Kolkata Knight Riders

Coach: Brendon McCullum
Captain: Shreyas Iyer
Best Finish: Champions (2012, 2014)
Last Season: Runners Up

Squad - Shreyas Iyer (C), Baba Indirajith, Aman Hakim Khan, Pratham Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Ramesh Kumar, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Aaron Finch, Abhijeet Tomar, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Mohammad Nabi, Shivam Mavi, Sam Billings (wk), Sheldon Jackson (wk), Ashok Sharma, Pat Cummins, Chamika Karunaratene, Sunil Narine, Rashik Salam, Varun Chakravarthy, Umesh Yadav

Delhi Capitals

Coach: Ricky Ponting
Captain: Rishabh Pant
Best Finish: Playoffs (five times)
Last Season: 1st in league (eliminated in playoffs)

Squad - Rishabh Pant (c/wk), Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Yash Dhull, Mandeep Singh, Ashwin Hebbar, Rovamn Powell, Mitchell Marsh, Ripan Patel, Axar Patel, Lal, Lalit Yadav, Srikar Bharat (wk), Tim Seifert (wk), Vicky Ostwal, Anrich Nortje, Shardul Thakur, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Mustafizur Rahman, Lungi Ngidi, Khaleel Ahmed, Chetan Sakariya, Praveen Dudey, Kuldeep Yadav

Punjab Kings 

Coach: Anil Kumble
Captain: Mayank Agarwal
Best Finish: Runners Up (2014)
Last Season: 6th

Squad - Mayank Agarwal (c), Prerak Mankand, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Benny Howell, Shahrukh Khan, Baltej Singh, Ansh Patel, Rishi Dhawan, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Arshdeep Singh, Odean Smith, Sandeep Singh, Writtick Chaterjee, Raj Bawa, Nathan Ellis, Ishan Porell, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Vaibhav Arora

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Coach: Sanjay Bangar
Captain: Faf Du Plessis
Best Finish: Runners Up (2009, 2011, 2016)
Last Season: 4th

Squad - Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Suyash Prabhudesai, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Sherfane Rutherford, Shahbaz Ahmed,  Wanindu Hasaranga, David Williey, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Anuj Rawat (wk), Finn Allen (wk), Luvinith Sisodia, Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, Josh Hazelwood, Akash Deep, Jason Behrendorff, Chama V Milind, Karn Sharma, Siddarth Kaul

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Coach: Trevor Bayliss
Captain: Kane Williamson
Best Finish: Champions (2016)
Last Season: 8th

Squad - Kane Williamson (c), Aiden Markram, Shashank Singh, Ravikumar Samarth, Priyam Garg, Rahul Tripathi, Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar, Marco Jansen, Sean Abbott, Abhishek Sharma, Shreyas Gopal, Glenn Phillips (wk), Nicholas Pooran (wk), Umran Malik (wk), Saurabh Dubey, Romario Shepherd, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Jagadeesha Suchith, Kartik Tyagi, T Natrajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Rajasthan Royals

Coach: Trevor Penney
Captain: Sanju Samson
Best Finish: Champions (2008)
Last Season: 7th

Squad - Sanju Samson (c/wk), Karun Nair, Rassie van der Dussen, Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal, James Neesham, Anunay Singh, Daryl Mitchell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jos Buttler (wk), Dhruv Jruel (wk), Shubham Garhwal, Kuldip Yadav, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Kuldeep Sen, Tejas Baroka, KC Cariappa, Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna

Lucknow Super Giants

Coach: Andy Flower
Captain: KL Rahul
Best Finish: N/A
Last Season: N/A

Squad - KL Rahul (c/wk), Manan Vohra, Evin Lewis, Manish Pandey, Marcus Stoinis, Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Karan Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jason Holder, Ayush Badoni, Quinton de Kock (wk), Ravi Bishnoi, Dushmantha Chameera, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohsin Khan, Mayank Yadav, Ankit Rajpoot, Andrew Tye, Avesh Khan

Gujarat Titans

Coach: Ashish Nehra
Captain: Hardik Pandya
Best Finish: N/A
Last Season: N/A

Squad - Hardik Pandya(c), Shubhman Gill, Sai Sudarshan, Abhinav Manohar, David Millier, Gurkreeat Singh Maan, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Mathew Wade (wk), Wriddhiman Saha, Rahamanullah Gurbaz, Domnic Drakes, Jayant Yadav, Rashid Khan, Varun Aaron, Darshan Nalkande, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Alzarri Joseph, Noor Ahmad, R Sai Kishore

First up I've gone for a straight win punt on the Mumbai Indians to reclaim their 2020 crown. After a dreadful 2021 campaign where the Mumbai franchise finished outside the playoffs in fifth spot, the mega franchise has strengthened significantly - especially on the batting front. Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard are joined by new signings Tim David and Daniel Sams in what looks a very strong line up. On the bowling front they have proven class death bowlers in Tymal Mills and Jasprit Bumrah. Surely they at least make the playoffs this time?

Next up we're taking a bit of a chance on one of the new boys, The Lucknow Super Giants franchise.

Lucknow have recruited well and have a superb top order in Captain KL Rahul, Quinton De Kock as well as power hitters in Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya and Jason Holder. They look a little light in the bowling but have replaced the injured Mark Wood superbly with the acquisition of Andrew Tye who won the Purple cap in 2018 and was superb at the death for BBL winners Perth Scorchers. 

I'm hoping the new franchise can be led by the excellent KL Rahul right to the later stages of the tournament and they look far better value than some shorter priced Franchises. 

Next up we move to the playoff prop markets and the aforementioned Rahul to be top scorer. We have discounted the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Virat Kohli, Jos Buttler and Mitch Marsh as they will likely be batting 3 or 4. Only twice in IPL history has the top scorer not opened the batting. Ishan Kishan looked an intriguing pick but he hasn't the same level of experience at this level as Rahul and will be fighting for top spot at Mumbai with Rohit. 

KL leads the IPL for runs in the last two seasons and is a superb T20 opener - averaging over 40 in his T20 international career. He is the joint top paid player in the IPL, alongside Kohli and will be keen to prove his credentials here as the figurehead of the brand new franchise. 

I am taking him each-way to finish in the top four. 

Our last pick is for the rapid fire New Zealand pace bowler Lockie Ferguson to be top wicket taker.  I've learnt my lesson by backing Rashid Khan in these markets. Twice he has climbed near the top of the rankings only to leave for Afghan national duty. Spinners rarely win this market, so I'm going for a death bowler. The favourite is Bumrah at 7/1 and he's certainly worth a shout, however I like the longer odds on Ferguson. The 30-year-old speedster has been picked up by the Gujarat Titans and will be their go-to-guy at the end of the innings meaning he should be able to accumulate some cheap wickets. He averages 15 in T20 internationals and picked up 13 wickets in just eight matches last season at 17.23 with a strike rate of just under 14. He is improving year on year and has some real variety to go along with that sheer 95 mph pace. 

Again I'm taking him at 16/1 each-way to finish in the top four.

If you are following these selections then please bet responsibly and good luck.