Five similarities between Indian T20 League 2011 and upcoming season

Everybody is familiar with the proverb History repeats itself. Cricket has seen its share of the manifestation of the proverb. Fans have often found similarities between incidents and have tried to predict the outcome of upcoming events based on parallelism. Cricket players have also been found to be superstitious regarding these matters on a few occasions. The 15th edition of the Indian T20 League is set to begin on the 26th of March, 2022. Strangely, this season has a lot of similarities with the 4th edition of the Indian T20 League (2011).

Here are five similarities between the two seasons.

1. 10 Teams format of the tournament: The year 2011 saw some changes in the format of the Indian T20 League. That year, two new franchises, namely Kochi and Pune were introduced in addition to the already participating 8 teams. So, the league shifted from its 8-teams format to a 10-teams format. However, the authorities dropped this format after 3 years and ITL went back to being an 8-team competition.

After being an 8-team affair for the last seven seasons, the Indian T20 League is again introducing two new franchises in 2022. The two new franchises are Gujarat and Lucknow. So, the Indian T20 League will again be a 10-team competition this year. Just like 2011, 2022 will also be the introductory year for two new additional franchises in the tournament.

2. Group Format: In 2011, with the introduction of two new teams in the Indian T20 League, the authorities decided to divide the 10 teams into two groups. The fixtures were arranged in such a way that each team was to play two games against the other teams of the same group. While they were to play one game against the teams of the other group except for one team against whom they were required to play two matches.

This year also with the addition of two new teams, the authorities have decided to go with the same format of 2011. The number of games will also be the same as that of 2011, 70.

3. Defending Champions: Chennai: In 2011, Chennai came into the tournament as the defending champions after winning the title in 2010. Coincidentally, Chennai is coming into the tournament of 2022 as the defending champions. Chennai won the title in 2021 after finishing last in 2020.

4. First Match: Chennai vs Kolkata: The 15th edition of the Indian T20 League is set to begin on the 26th of March, 2022. The opening clash of the 2022 season will be between Chennai and Kolkata. This was also the opening clash of the 2011 Indian T20 League. The men from Chennai won that clash 11 years ago by 2 runs.

5. New captain for Kolkata: In 2011, Kolkata was led by a new captain who previously played for the Delhi franchise i.e Gautam Gambhir. This year also Kolkata has entrusted the job of captaincy to a new player, Shreyas Iyer, who previously played for Delhi.