IPL 2024: Kohli Strikes, But Narine Leads MVP Race

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present Rediff.com's Most Valuable Player Index of IPL 2024 after Game 62.

IMAGE: Virat Kohli scores in the game against Punjab Kings at Dharamsala, May 9, 2024. Photograph: BCCI

While it'll be impossible for anyone to catch up with Sunil Narine (MVPI: 970, with at least 3 more matches to play), Virat Kohli's comeback this year has been heart-warming.

By his standards, IPL 13, IPL 14 and IPL 15 were mediocre. IPL 16 was reassuring and IPL 17 confirms that the maestro is returning to top form after consistently being ranked in the top 3 (although even he can't match his IPL 9 magic; see Table 1)

Kohli's IPL in recent years

Year	IPL #	Rank	Runs	Str rate	MVPI
2016	IPL 9	1	973	151.9	1128
2020	IPL 13	34	436	121.4	368
2021	IPL 14	34	405	119.5	352
2022	IPL 15	68	341	119.0	277
2023	IPL 16	8	639	139.8	671

Kohli has the highest run aggregate this year (661 so far), but what's much more pleasing is that his strike rate is zooming up (above 155).

We have no doubt that this will be his new ballpark.

Table 2, below, tells the overall IPL story this year.

Anyone in this top 50 list with a player value index (PVI) below 1000 and a strike rate around 170, will be hot property at next year's big auction: Phil Salt, Riyan Parag, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Fraser-McGurk, Tristan Stubbs, Shivam Dube, Shashank Singh and Rajat Patidar should earn much more, especially because the team purse is expected to rise significantly.

IMAGE: Sunil Narine in action during an IPL game against the Lucknow Super Giants. Photograph: BCCI

Best Performing Players so far in IPL 2024 (after Match 62 ending 12.05.24)

Rank	Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Top Score	4s	6s	Strike Rate	Wickets	Economy Rate	Games	MVPI	PVI(US$)
1	Sunil Narine	KKR	WI	461	109	46	32	184.4	15	6.6	12	970	639
2	Virat Kohli	RCB	IND	661	113	56	33	155.2	0	-	13	761	2205
3	Travis Head	SRH	AUS	533	102	61	31	201.9	0	-	11	670	1048
4	Ruturaj Gaikwad	CSK	IND	583	108	58	18	141.5	0	-	13	578	1161
5	Sanju Samson	RR	IND	486	86	44	23	158.3	0	-	12	572	2528
6	Philip Salt	KKR	ENG	435	89	50	24	165.4	0	-	12	566	274
7	Abhishek Sharma	SRH	ND	401	75	30	35	205.6	0	9	12	540	1243
8	Rishabh Pant	DC	IND	413	88	31	25	156.4	0	-	12	523	3423
9	Riyan Parag	RR	IND	483	84	32	31	153.8	0	9	12	519	756
10	Andre Russell	KKR	WI	222	64	20	16	185	15	10.3	12	513	2818
11	Axar Patel	DC	IND	221	66	17	10	130.8	10	7.4	13	511	2627
12	KL Rahul	LSG	IND	460	82	41	16	136.1	0	-	12	509	3449
13	B Sai Sudarshan	GT	IND	527	103	48	16	141.3	0	-	12	504	41
14	Jasprit Bumrah	MI	IND	12	8	1	0	100	20	6.5	13	503	2669
15	Tilak Varma	MI	IND	416	65	35	19	149.6	0	12	13	485	392
16	Jake Fraser-McGurk	DC	AUS	330	84	32	28	237.4	0	-	8	482	116
17	Tristan Stubbs	DC	SA	321	71	21	22	185.5	2	11	13	468	120
18	Marcus Stoinis	LSG	AUS	355	124	33	16	151.7	4	9	12	464	2448
19	Shivam Dube	CSK	IND	389	66	28	28	169.9	1	14	13	460	973
20	Heinrich Klaasen	SRH	SA	339	80	12	31	186.3	0	-	12	453	1197
21	Ravindra Jadeja	CSK	AUS	225	57	19	5	135.5	8	7.5	13	448	3996
22	Nicholas Pooran	LSG	WI	363	64	24	24	162.1	0	-	12	438	3772
23	Faf du Plessis	RCB	SA	367	64	42	17	168.3	0	-	13	437	1792
24	Shashank Singh	PBKS	IND	352	68	28	21	168.4	0	-	12	430	48
25	Shubman Gill	GT	IND	426	104	37	15	147.4	0	-	12	425	1701
26	Harshal Patel	PBKS	IND	13	12	1	1	68.4	20	9.8	12	411	2952
27	Suryakumar Yadav	MI	IND	345	102	36	18	170	0	-	10	404	2215
28	Dinesh Karthik	RCB	IND	301	83	25	21	194.2	0	-	13	397	1550
29	Ishan Kishan	MI	IND	306	69	34	16	153	0	-	13	393	4341
30	Sam Curran	PBKS	ENG	207	63	19	3	116.3	14	10.3	12	391	4886
31	Rajat Patidar	RCB	IND	320	55	17	27	179.8	0	-	13	391	57
32	Pat Cummins	SRH	AUS	77	35	4	5	163.8	14	9.3	12	384	5513
33	Varun Chakravarthy	KKR	IND	0	0	0	0	-	18	8.3	12	377	3287
34	Hardik Pandya	MI	IND	200	46	16	10	144.9	11	10.6	13	370	4536
35	Cameron Green	RCB	AUS	190	46	17	6	135.7	8	8.8	11	368	5320
36	Yashasvi Jaiswal	RR	IND	344	104	41	13	153.6	0	-	12	364	1135
37	Jos Buttler	RR	ENG	359	107	36	12	140.8	0	-	11	363	2845
38	Jonny Bairstow	PBKS	ENG	284	108	32	14	164.2	0	-	10	357	1953
39	Rohit Sharma	MI	IND	349	105	35	20	145.4	0	-	13	356	5028
40	Daryl Mitchell	CSK	NZ	314	63	27	10	144.7	1	11.7	12	347	4514
41	Rashid Khan	GT	AFG	103	32	11	3	145.1	10	8.4	12	342	4529
42	Kuldeep Yadav	DC	IND	47	35	2	0	114.6	15	8.7	10	327	684
43	Tushar Deshpande	CSK	IND	0	0	0	0	0	16	8.5	12	326	69
44	Nithish Reddy	SRH	IND	239	76	12	17	152.2	3	9.4	9	323	64
45	Shreyas Iyer	KKR	IND	287	50	28	10	135.4	0	-	12	319	3966
46	Abishek Porel	DC	IND	269	65	31	9	156.4	0	-	13	301	74
47	Will Jacks	RCB	ENG	230	100	16	18	175.6	2	11.1	8	299	1197
48	Tim David	MI	AUS	241	45	14	14	158.6	0	-	13	290	3183
49	Harshit Rana	KKR	IND	0	0	0	0	-	16	9.7	10	288	717
50	Prabhsimran Singh	PBKS	IND	257	54	26	16	156.7	0	-	12	274	271

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com

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