The IPL 2022 season starts today with the match between Chennai and Kolkata.
The IPL series has not been played in India for the last two years due to Coronavirus outbreak. Half of last year's series took place in India and the rest in the United Arab Emirates. Two years later, the full series is set to take place in India, raising expectations among fans. In the midst of all this joy, fans are going to miss a few things in this series. Check out here -
Dhoni's captaincy
Chennai Super Kings have been the dominant team in the IPL so far. The team's captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was one of the reasons for that. He also captained the team for all 12 seasons. CSK has won the trophy 4 times so far. And now, Dhoni has announced to step down from his captaincy. But it has been announced that he will continue as a player within the team. The decision came as a shock to the IPL fans. Jadeja has been appointed as the new captain of the CSK team. The CSK CEO declined to comment on whether Dhoni's last IPL season will be over as the captain has resigned, saying that Dhoni will continue to play.
Kohli steps down as Captain
Virat Kohli announced the decision last year. Virat Kohli, who captained the Royal Challengers in 2014, led Bangalore in the 7th IPL. However, the team did not win the IPL trophy so far, the team captain announced to resign from captaincy. Despite going to the playoffs several times and reaching the final several times, he still has not won the trophy. And thus, last year, Virat Kohli announced his resignation as RCB captain. But he had announced that he would play for the team until last. Following this, RCB retained him for Rs 15 crore.
De Villiers' retirement
De Villiers, also known as Mr. 360, who announced his retirement from international cricket a few years ago, has focused only on league matches such as the IPL. De Villiers has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket last year. The team is set to play this year without De Villiers, who has been one of the pillars of RCB for more than 10 years. He is currently a consultant to the team.
Universal Boss Gayle
One of the achievements of T20 cricket who is popularly known as the Universal Boss - Chris Gayle is one of the most important entertainers in IPL cricket. He has played for Kolkata, RCB and Punjab and is proud to be the highest scorer in the IPL series. He has been playing for Punjab for the last few years and has not played in the IPL this year. This is very shocking news for the fans.
IPL without Suresh Raina
Chennai Super Kings player who has dominated the IPL cricket series to that extent that he got to be known as Mr. IPL. Raina is the player that the fans celebrated as Chinna Thala. The cricketer who played for the Chennai Super Kings in 11 seasons, has been instrumental in helping win many matches. But he was not picked by any team, including CSK, in this year's auction. So now he will be seen as a Hindi commentator in IPL 2022 season. This will be the first IPL series without Raina.
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