IPL 2022 Final: Gujarat Titans Finish What They Had Begun So Well As Rajasthan Royals Miss Out On The Big Show | SEASON REVIEW

Among the others, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings should be back with a bang, while the rest all need some sort of overhaul, be it player-wise, or even administration-wise.

When the IPL 2022 began, few had thought Gujarat Titans (GT) will be it. In fact, many were mystified by the manner in which GT chose players during the IPL 2022 player auction and there was a strong school of thought that claimed that the team was just too disjointed to really make a serious attempt at the crown. One assumes all those considerations are now moot, since not only did GT beat the odds, they beat everyone that they came across, including Rajasthan Royals (RR) twice in the qualifiers, a feat that was quite something given the way RR were playing till the end of the league.

The sum total of it all is that GT are now the champions – they became the second team to win the IPL in their inaugural season. The first? Rajasthan Royals.

What about RR then? Well, they can be happy with the way they played this season. Jos Buttler duly lifted the Orange Cap with a total of 863 runs with four centuries and four fifties, while Yuzvendra Chahal had to wait for the final to claim that important wicket that gave him the Purple Cap, ahead of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Wanindu Hasaranga.

But both of them and the rest of the RR contingent would be heartbroken to go down so easily in a final.

No one came good with the bat, and the bowling saw Trent Boult and Chahal put up a fight, but the rest, especially Ravichandran Ashwin, were not in the battle.

GT did everything right, like they have been doing almost throughout IPL 2022. Their secret weapon finally was the skipper with the ball, as Hardik Pandya’s 3/17 was possibly the difference between the two sides.

The wickets were those of Buttler, rival skipper Sanju Samson, and Shimron Hetmeyer. The rest of the bowling followed the captain’s charge and RR were down and out.

This win will also be turning point for Pandya as a player and captain, and one hopes his new-found maturity and focus will serve Indian cricket for a long time.

As for IPL 2022, the disappointments and successes will soon be consigned to the history books, but a little mention of the other in the fray till the last-four is merited.

Royal Challengers Bangalore were in it to win it. Or so it seemed till they tripped over RR in Qualifier 2. Consistency was never their forte throughout IPL 2022, so the fact that they choked when they shouldn’t have, wasn’t so much of a surprise. Virat Kohli still doesn’t have the IPL trophy. But who knows, 2023 may be different.

KL Rahul showed himself as on of the best captains in the tournament, and his batting form did him no harm at all. That said, Lucknow Super Giants were off the boil in the critical part of the league, when they lost the top-two spot to RR and that cost them dear in the Eliminator.

Among the others, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings should be back with a bang, while the rest all need some sort of overhaul, be it player-wise, or even administration-wise.

All in all, IPL 2022 had it all. Ten teams made it that much longer, but also kept the competitive edge alive for longer. Let’s see how it all pans out in 2023.