Virat, Rohit's barren run to MI-CSK's mighty fall: 5 surprising elements from IPL 2022's league stage

IPL 2022's riveting 70-match league stage saw plenty of twists and turns. Here are the five surprising elements that took place in the group stage:

Contrary to expectations, both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma failed to live upto expectations with the willow in the league stage. While Rohit's IPL 2022 journey ended with not even a single half-century -- amassing 268 runs at 120.17 -- Kohli got two fifties but only managed 309 runs in 14 games below a 120 strike rate.

Unlike Rohit, Kohli still has a chance to make amends in the playoffs with his franchise still in the race for the elusive title.

No one would've imagined that both CSK and MI would not qualify for the IPL 2022 playoffs. Both sides were the first two teams out of the playoffs race and ended at the bottom, with Mumbai being in the tenth place (for the first time). 

Both MI and CSK lost nine, or more, games in an IPL season. Thus, the two sides -- who share as many as nine IPL trophies combined -- witnessed a colossal failure in this season's league stage.

Just like CSK and MI's indifferent run was highly unexpected, not many would've given a chance to both the debutant teams. While Hardik Pandya's captaincy was untested, he excelled in marshaling his troops -- which didn't have many big players -- to take them to the playoffs as the top-ranked side. On the other hand, KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) looked strong on paper and managed to go through as the third-ranked side.

Rahul's captaincy struggles were witnessed in IPL 2020 and the following season, in the Punjab Kings (PBKS) camp, however, he led reasonably well and got much support from Quinton de Kock, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Mohsin and Avesh Khan, etc.

Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals (RR) had a strong team on paper after a good show in the mega auction, in February. However, the one-time winners did exceedingly well to end as the top-two sides in the overall standings. This also became the first season for RR -- after the inaugural season -- where they ended at the top two after the league stage. 

Will history repeat itself with RR ending with the elusive title? 

Big retainers such as Ravindra Jadeja, Kieron Pollard, Glenn Maxwell couldn't do much in their primary roles throughout the league stage. On the other hand, some players who returned with whopping deals post the mega auction also fell flat or remained ordinary; such as Ishan Kishan, Shardul Thakur, etc. 

On the other hand, many uncapped players did very well, better than majority of marquee players. The likes of Umran Malik, Tim David, Mukesh Choudhary, Mukesh Theekshana, Mohsin Khan, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Verma, etc. made heads turn with bat or ball.