The start of the IPL season is upon us once again and after a closely contested IPL 2021 season, everyone is eager to see who will be crowned champion at the end of the year. But who has the best chance of taking home that crown? Will the Chennai Super Kings be able to defend their title? Can Kolkata Knight Riders go one step further than last year? We’ll take a look at the teams we think have the best chance of winning the IPL 2022 season.
With the addition of two new teams to the league, the competition has undergone a significant change from the round-robin format of last year. This year, the teams have been divided into two groups of five, but each team will still play 14 games. They will face the other four teams in their group in a double round-robin as well as play four teams in the other group once, and the remaining team from the other group twice. From there, the format remains the same; the top two teams will advance to the Qualifier 1 and the teams in 3rd and 4th will advance to the Eliminator.
Now that we know how it’s going to work this season, who do we think will come out on top?
When looking for who will take the title this year, it’s hard to look past last season’s winners – Chennai Super Kings. After an extremely strong start to last season, it looked like they were tailing off at the wrong time – losing their last three games of the regular season. However, they bounced back well and won both their Qualifier 1 and the Final to claim their 4th IPL title.
This is a team that has reached the playoff round in every season they have participated in the IPL, so they have a great deal of experience in navigating the tournament. However, will they be affected by the new format? They’ve lost influential players in Faf du Plessis and Shardul Thakur before the start of the season and they could be feeling those losses more sharply come to the business end of the season. While they are always in with a shout, we do not have them as the favorites for this season.
Instead, that honour goes to the Delhi Capitals. While this team has never won an IPL title, this is arguably their best chance to do so as they currently boast one of the best – if not the best – squad in the league. Having come close last year, topping the league before losing both Preliminary games, this team will be itching to bounce back and atone for their mistakes.
With the incoming transfers of David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, and Axar Patel, there’s no denying that the Delhi Capitals are building a strong, dynamic team around a solid bowling core. A lot of pundits believe them to have the best top 4 in the league as well as tremendous strength in depth. Many are touting them to go all the way this season and we believe they have a great chance of claiming their first IPL title.
One team that might surprise everyone this year is the Punjab Kings. They had a fantastic auction performance at the start of the year, backed by the biggest purse in the league which they have used effectively. They are another team with an intimidating top-four lineup; made up of Shijahr Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Jonny Bairstow, and Mayank Argawal.
They’re also looking better with the ball, with the purchase of Kagiso Rabada who was brought in to partner Arshdeep Singh. Despite building such a strong team this season, the bookmakers only have them 4th favorites to win – priced at 17/2. Some of these online betting sites will even have the option to boost those odds to make them an even more attractive prospect. On top of this, there is also generous welcome offers to give you more value for money. There are a great number of betting sites in India to choose from so it’s helpful to have sites like AsiaBet to help you compare and choose the website that’s right for you; whether you enjoy sports betting or more traditional casino games like blackjack and slots. If the Punjab Kings are to claim their first title, they’ll need to start the season off in better form than they did last year.
So there we have it, our picks for who will be crowned IPL champion for 2022. It promises to be a very close season and with a lot of teams looking very competitive on paper, it’s anyone’s guess as to who will come out on top!
