India, 31 May 2022.

Twitter is the home ground for some of the most passionate real-time cricket conversations in the country, in fact, between January 2021 - January 2022, 4.4 million people on Twitter in India sent out 96.2 million Tweets about cricket. 

And as fans returned to stadiums this cricket season to experience their favourite sport, their cheers echoed loud and clear on Twitter too. While Gujarat Titans (@gujarat_titans), won the tournament trophy, Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) won on Twitter – becoming the most Tweeted about team of the season. The team’s former skipper, Virat Kohli (@imVKohli), also remained the talk of the timelines on the service -- becoming the most Tweeted about player of the season. 

To enhance the experience of cricket fans, Twitter experimented with several new features. An India only experiment, the Cricket Tab, served as a one-stop destination for all things cricket, and included a live scorecard to follow ball-by-ball updates. The Cricket Twitter Community gave fans an opportunity to share the thrill of the most gripping match moments with like-minded people. Twitter Communities let people find others who like to talk about the same things and connect with them over their shared interests. 

The service also curated exclusive #OnlyOnTwitter content such as #FanTweetswith Shreyas Iyer (@ShreyasIyer15) and #GOATTweets with Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) to delight fans seeking off-field moments with their favourite athletes and commentators. Let’s take a look at what the season looked like on Twitter -

Most Tweeted about Teams

*Methodology: Identified based on the total number of Tweets from 26 March 2022 - 30 May 2022

Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) grabbed the top spot among most Tweeted about teams this season owing to their close calls in their quest to secure their first league trophy. Chennai Super Kings  (@ChennaiIPL), who’ve won the trophy four times and have been the winners on #CricketTwitter year after year, and five-time champions Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) grabbed the second and third spots respectively. They were followed by Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) and Kolkata Knight Riders (@KKRiders) - two other fan favourites that kept viewers on the edge of their seats and tuned to #CricketTwitterthrough the season.

1. Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets)
2. Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL)
3. Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan)
4. Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals)
5. Kolkata Knight Riders (@KKRiders)

The Gujarat Titans (@gujarat_titans), who made ripples of conversation as they made it to the final and then won the trophy, stood sixth in line as the most Tweeted about teams on Twitter.

Most Tweeted about players

*Methodology: Identified based on the total number of Tweets from 26 March 2022 - 30 May 2022

Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) topped the list of most Tweeted about players. His undeterred spirit to bring the team their first title as well as his smashing comeback in a must-win match against Gujarat Titans (@gujarat_titans) had fans lauding him throughout the season. MS Dhoni (@msdhoni) continued to make rounds across timelines all season long, especially exciting fans with his Dhoni-esque finisher against Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan). Mumbai Indians’ skipper Rohit Sharma (@imRo45) stands next on the list, followed by Ravindrasinh Jadeja (@imjadeja) who took over the CSK’s captaincy from MS Dhoni earlier in the season before being forced out of the league mid-season due to a rib injury. Royal Challengers Bangalore’s captain Faf du Plessis (@faf1307), who is fifth on the list of most Tweeted players, received attention and fans’ love for this commendable captaincy in one of the team’s finest seasons, as claimed by cricket watchers. 

1. Virat Kohli (@imVkohli)
2. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (@msdhoni)
3. Rohit Sharma (@imRo45)
4. Ravindrasinh Jadeja (@imjadeja)
5. Faf du Plessis (@faf1307)

Most Tweeted hashtags

*Methodology: Identified based on the total number of Tweets from 26 March 2022 - 30 May 2022

Chennai Super Kings’ (@ChennaiIPL) and Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (@RCBTweets) dominance of the #CricketTwitter conversation is evident in the top hashtags of the season, which echo the cheers of #whistlepodu, #yellove, #playbold and #wearechallengers - the teams’ respective slogans and chants. 

1. #ipl2022
2. #whistlepodu
3. #yellove
4. #playbold
5. #wearechallengers

Most Tweeted emojis

*Methodology: Identified based on the total number of Tweets from 26 March 2022 - 30 May 2022

The season’s most Tweeted emojis also reflect the popularity of Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) with the lion emoji, popular in CSK conversations, taking the top spot. Yellow and blue hearts reflect support for CSK and Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) respectively. The fire and laughing with tears emojis suggest that the season was an exciting one for fans with several hilarious moments and conversations. 

1. ?
2. ? (yellow heart)
3. ?
4. ? (blue heart)
5. ?

Most Retweeted Tweets

*Methodology: Identified based on the total number of Retweets on Tweets from 26 March 2022 - 30 May 2022

• #1 - Virat Kohli’s Tweet celebrating Mumbai Indians’ (@mipaltan) victory over Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) - and by way of that, his team RCB’s (@RCBTweets) qualification for the playoffs, was the most Retweeted Tweet of the season. 

Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/imVkohli/status/1528075270527234050

• #2 - Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) also Tweeted in celebration of the win. As fans joined in, the Tweet became the second most Retweeted one of the season. 

Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/mipaltan/status/1528072823075311616

• #3 - While AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) isn’t playing on ground anymore, he remains an RCB (@RCBTweets) loyalist - as was evident in his jubilant Tweet celebrating the team’s win in the Eliminator against Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL)  and their move into the second qualifier of the season. Fans couldn’t help but join him in the celebration. 

• #4 - Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s  (@msdhoni) winning finisher against Mumbai Indians  (@mipaltan) had everyone praising the skipper, and his team led the celebration with a Tweet that became the third most Retweeted Tweet. 

• #5 - Suresh Raina (@ImRaina), who took to the commentators’ box this year, also cheered on Twitter for his former teammate MS Dhoni (@msdhoni) after the skipper’s victorious run against Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan).