Twitter in India has been abuzz with real-time cricket conversations with around 4.4 million Twitter users in India sending out 96.2 million tweets about the sport between January 2021-2022, according to the microblogging platform.
With the Indian Premier League 2022 coming to an end, Twitter, in an official release has shared some of the most popular cricket trends on the platform in India.
“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,” Twitter said in a note.
The team’s former skipper, Virat Kohli (@imVKohli) was the most Tweeted about player of the season.
Here are some of the top Cricket Twitter trends in India this season;
Most tweeted about teams
Based on the total number of Tweets from March 26, 2022 - May 30, 2022, the platform curated a list of most tweeted about teams with Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) taking the lead.
The team was much talked about owing to their close calls in a bid 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) took the second and third spots respectively.
They were followed by Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) and Kolkata Knight Riders (@KKRiders).
The new team Gujarat Titans (@gujarat_titans) and the winner of this year’s IPL trophy took the sixth spot.
Most tweeted about players
Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) was the most Tweeted about player with fans lauding his efforts to bring the team their first title and his comeback in a must-win match against Gujarat Titans.
He was followed by MS Dhoni (@msdhoni) who continued to make rounds across timelines all season long. Fans were especially thrilled about his finisher against Mumbai Indians.
Mumbai Indians’ skipper Rohit Sharma (@imRo45) took the third spot, 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) took the fifth spot on the list.
Twitter also shared some of the most tweeted about hashtags. The top five most popular hashtags were #ipl2022, #whistlepodu, #yellove, #playbold and #wearechallengers.
The season’s most tweeted emojis also reflected the popularity of Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) with the lion emoji, popular in CSK conversations, taking the top spot. Other popular emojis were yellow and blue hearts. The fire and laughing with tears emojis were also onthe list.
The microblogging platform also shared a list of the most retweeted tweets
The most retweeted tweet was Virat Kohli’s Tweet celebrating Mumbai Indians’ victory over Delhi Capitals. This made his team RCB’s qualification for the playoffs, the most retweeted tweet of the season.
The second spot was taken by Mumbai Indians’ tweet in celebration of the win.
AB de Villiers’ tweet celebrating RCB’s win in the Eliminator against Lucknow Super Giants and their move into the second qualifier of the season also made it to the list.
A tweet praising Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s winning finisher against Mumbai Indians was also on the list of most retweeted tweets.
The fifth most retweeted tweet was by Suresh Raina who took to the commentators’ box this year and cheered on Twitter for his former teammate MS Dhoni after the skipper’s victorious run against Mumbai Indians.
Twitter has been experimenting with new features related to the experience of cricket fans. This includes an India only experiment, the Cricket Tab as well as the Cricket Twitter Community.
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 #FanTweets with Shreyas Iyer (@ShreyasIyer15) and #GOATTweets with Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha).