IPL 2022 begins on Saturday with CSK vs KKR; players, where to watch 

The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is scheduled to start on Saturday, March 26, 2022. IPL 2022's first match will be between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the iconic Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.  

The IPL 2022 edition will have 10 teams unlike the usual eight with the addition of two new IPL teams.  

IPL 2022 has also changed its format this year. The teams have been divided into two grounds - Group A and Group B- based on their past performances in the league. Each team within the group will play each other twice and once against the teams from the other group except for one team, against which they will play two matches. 

The IPL 2022 first match between CSK versus KKR will start at 7.30 pm on March 26, 2022, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. This year’s IPL edition will be played behind closed doors, with only two venues for the league stage matches-Mumbai and Pune so as to avoid the risk of air travel. The IPL 2022 playoffs and the final will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. 

Two days before the season opener at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who led CSK to four IPL titles, handed over the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja. The first match also marks the debut of Shreyas Iyer as captain for KKR. The Shah Rukh Khan owned team spent Rs 12.5 crore to acquire him.

KKR retained four players during the retention with the addition of a new skipper in Shreyas along with many other stars including Ajinkya Rahane and Sam Billings, while they also bought back the likes of Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi and Nitish Rana.

CSK, on the other hand, retained their core including Jadeja, Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali and also bought back several former players during the auction including Robin Uthappa, Dwayne Bravo and Ambati Rayudu.

CSK, KKR players

Chennai Super Kings: Ravindra Jadeja (captain), MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Uthappa, Devon Conway, Shivam Dube, N Jagadeesan, Hari Nishanth, Subhranshu Senapati, Dwayne Bravo, Bhagath Varma, Dwaine Pretorious, Mitchell Santner, KM Asif, Adam Milne, Simrajeet Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Chris Jordan, Maheesh Theekshana, Mukesh Choudhary, Rajavardhan Hangargekar, Prashanth Solanki.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Tim Southee, Sam Billings (wicketkeeper), Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakaravarthy, Umesh Yadav, Chamika Karunaratne, Sheldon Jackson (wicketkeeper), Baba Indrajith (wicketkeeper), Aman Khan, Pratham Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Rinku Singh, Abhijeet Tomar, Anukul Roy, Mohammad Nabi, Ashok Sharma, Rasikh Salam.

IPL 2022 will start on Saturday, March 26th, and will conclude till May 29th.  

Where to watch

The first IPL 2022 match live telecast will be available on the Star Sports network including Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3, Star Sports HD2, Star Sports 1 Tamil, Star Sports 4, Star Sports HD1. 

Viewers can also watch the match on Disney+ Hotstar.