Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present Rediff.com's Most Valuable Player Index of IPL 2024 after Match 54.
After 11 matches, Sunil Narine's MVPI is an unbelievable 942. With at least 4 matches to go, Narine seems certain to breach Virat Kohli's 2016 MVPI record of 1128.
In Kohli's magical 2016 season he scored 973 runs at a strike rate of 152. Narine has scored only 461 runs so far at a strike rate of 185, but also has 14 wickets at an economy rate of 6.6.
Recall that MVPI collapses a player's batting, bowling and fielding performance into a simple 'runs equivalent', and rewards batters who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate and bowlers who take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate.
The MVPI table is very data-rich, if one has the patience to spend some time looking at it.
Let's look at strike rates that everyone's talking about these days.
It would appear that the new normal for post-2020 batters is 170-180.
Look at Phil Salt (166), Travis Head (194), Heinrich Klaasen (189), Abhishek Sharma (209), Tristan Stubbs (186), Shivam Dube (170), Shashank Singh (166), Jake Fraser-McGurk (233), and Suryakumar Yadav (168).
Looking at our old records we find only three seniors in that 170 ballpark: Chris Gayle, A B de Villiers and the peerless Virender Sehwag!
Let us now look at the most Paisa Vasool players: The Paisa Vasool (or player value) index (PVI) calculates how many US$ the franchise pays for every MVPI point (or 'run equivalent') contributed by the player. The lower the PVI, the greater the player value.
The best returns in the 2024 IPL season have been offered by Sunil Narine (PVI: 603), Phil Salt (260), Riyan Parag (737), Tristan Stubbs (115), Tilak Varma (405), Shashank Singh (50), Jake Fraser-McGurk (126), B Sai Sudharsan (51), Nithish Reddy (58), Matheesha Pathirana (70) and Rajat Patidar (73).
The biggest takeaway from these numbers is that franchises should strengthen their scouting programme even more.
A truly promising young player could deliver a PVI of $100 at a mere Rs 50 lakh (Rs 5 million).
Best Performing Players in IPL 2024 (after Match 54 ending 05.05.2024)
| Rank | Player | Team | From | Runs | Top Score | 4s | 6s | Strike Rate | Wickets | Economy Rate | GAMES | MVPI | PVI(US$) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sunil Narine | KKR | WI | 461 | 109 | 46 | 32 | 185.1 | 14 | 6.6 | 11 | 942 | 603 |
| 2 | Virat Kohli | RCB | IND | 542 | 113 | 48 | 24 | 148.1 | 0 | - | 11 | 595 | 2386 |
| 3 | Ruturaj Gaikwad | CSK | IND | 541 | 108 | 57 | 16 | 147 | 0 | - | 11 | 548 | 1036 |
| 4 | Philip Salt | KKR | ENG | 429 | 89 | 50 | 23 | 166.3 | 0 | - | 11 | 546 | 260 |
| 5 | Rishabh Pant | DC | IND | 398 | 88 | 31 | 24 | 158.6 | 0 | - | 11 | 513 | 2952 |
| 6 | KL Rahul | LSG | IND | 431 | 82 | 40 | 15 | 141.3 | 0 | - | 11 | 501 | 3212 |
| 7 | Travis Head | SRH | AUS | 396 | 102 | 46 | 22 | 194.1 | 0 | - | 9 | 486 | 1204 |
| 8 | Marcus Stoinis | LSG | AUS | 352 | 124 | 33 | 16 | 153.7 | 4 | 9 | 11 | 466 | 2235 |
| 9 | Sanju Samson | RR | IND | 385 | 82 | 36 | 17 | 159.1 | 0 | - | 10 | 458 | 2631 |
| 10 | Andre Russell | KKR | WI | 198 | 64 | 18 | 14 | 186.8 | 13 | 10.2 | 11 | 457 | 2900 |
| 11 | Heinrich Klaasen | SRH | SA | 337 | 80 | 12 | 31 | 189.3 | 0 | - | 10 | 449 | 1006 |
| 12 | Riyan Parag | RR | IND | 409 | 84 | 30 | 25 | 159.1 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 444 | 737 |
| 13 | Jasprit Bumrah | MI | IND | 12 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 100 | 17 | 6.3 | 11 | 439 | 2588 |
| 14 | Abhishek Sharma | SRH | IND | 315 | 63 | 22 | 28 | 208.6 | 0 | 9 | 10 | 434 | 1289 |
| 15 | Ravindra Jadeja | CSK | AUS | 202 | 57 | 17 | 4 | 135.6 | 8 | 7.3 | 11 | 421 | 3598 |
| 16 | Faf du Plessis | RCB | SA | 352 | 64 | 39 | 17 | 172.5 | 0 | - | 11 | 416 | 1593 |
| 17 | Tristan Stubbs | DC | SA | 277 | 71 | 18 | 19 | 185.9 | 2 | 11 | 11 | 410 | 115 |
| 18 | Shivam Dube | CSK | IND | 350 | 66 | 24 | 26 | 170.7 | 1 | 14 | 11 | 406 | 933 |
| 19 | Axar Patel | DC | IND | 149 | 66 | 11 | 6 | 124.2 | 9 | 7.2 | 11 | 399 | 2847 |
| 20 | Tilak Varma | MI | IND | 347 | 65 | 24 | 18 | 151.5 | 0 | 12 | 11 | 397 | 405 |
| 21 | Nicholas Pooran | LSG | WI | 315 | 64 | 18 | 23 | 159.1 | 0 | - | 11 | 381 | 3975 |
| 22 | Shashank Singh | PBKS | IND | 315 | 68 | 24 | 19 | 165.8 | 0 | - | 11 | 378 | 50 |
| 23 | Jake Fraser-McGurk | DC | AUS | 259 | 84 | 23 | 23 | 233.3 | 0 | - | 6 | 376 | 126 |
| 24 | B Sai Sudharsan | GT | IND | 424 | 84 | 43 | 9 | 131.7 | 0 | - | 11 | 374 | 51 |
| 25 | Dinesh Karthik | RCB | IND | 283 | 83 | 24 | 19 | 193.8 | 0 | - | 11 | 374 | 1392 |
| 26 | Sam Curran | PBKS | ENG | 185 | 63 | 17 | 3 | 114.2 | 13 | 9.8 | 11 | 364 | 4811 |
| 27 | Rohit Sharma | MI | IND | 326 | 105 | 33 | 19 | 154.5 | 0 | - | 11 | 354 | 4279 |
| 28 | Harshal Patel | PBKS | IND | 13 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 72.2 | 17 | 9.8 | 11 | 354 | 3142 |
| 29 | Jos Buttler | RR | ENG | 319 | 107 | 32 | 11 | 149.8 | 0 | - | 9 | 346 | 2487 |
| 30 | Yashasvi Jaiswal | RR | IND | 316 | 104 | 37 | 12 | 157.2 | 0 | - | 10 | 343 | 1004 |
| 31 | Ishan Kishan | MI | IND | 257 | 69 | 27 | 14 | 150.3 | 0 | - | 11 | 327 | 4415 |
| 32 | Varun Chakravarthy | KKR | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 16 | 8.8 | 11 | 322 | 3528 |
| 33 | Jonny Bairstow | PBKS | ENG | 257 | 108 | 28 | 13 | 163.7 | 0 | - | 9 | 321 | 1991 |
| 34 | Hardik Pandya | MI | IND | 198 | 46 | 16 | 10 | 147.8 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 318 | 4465 |
| 35 | Shreyas Iyer | KKR | IND | 280 | 50 | 27 | 10 | 138.6 | 0 | - | 11 | 314 | 3693 |
| 36 | Rashid Khan | GT | AFG | 103 | 32 | 11 | 3 | 145.1 | 8 | 8.3 | 11 | 302 | 4702 |
| 37 | Shubman Gill | GT | IND | 322 | 89 | 28 | 9 | 137.6 | 0 | - | 11 | 299 | 2216 |
| 38 | Nithish Reddy | SRH | IND | 219 | 76 | 10 | 17 | 154.2 | 3 | 9.8 | 7 | 298 | 58 |
| 39 | Tim David | MI | AUS | 241 | 45 | 14 | 14 | 161.7 | 0 | - | 11 | 295 | 2647 |
| 40 | Pat Cummins | SRH | AUS | 42 | 31 | 2 | 3 | 140 | 12 | 9.1 | 10 | 295 | 5980 |
| 41 | T Natarajan | SRH | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 15 | 9 | 8 | 277 | 1243 |
| 42 | Matheesha Pathirana | CSK | SL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 13 | 7.7 | 6 | 269 | 70 |
| 43 | Kuldeep Yadav | DC | IND | 36 | 35 | 1 | 0 | 124.1 | 12 | 8.5 | 8 | 268 | 706 |
| 44 | Prabhsimran Singh | PBKS | IND | 251 | 54 | 25 | 16 | 156.9 | 0 | - | 11 | 268 | 254 |
| 45 | Daryl Mitchell | CSK | NZ | 229 | 52 | 16 | 7 | 134.7 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 263 | 5039 |
| 46 | Suryakumar Yadav | MI | IND | 232 | 78 | 23 | 12 | 168.1 | 0 | - | 8 | 263 | 2880 |
| 47 | Harpreet Brar | PBKS | IND | 75 | 29 | 8 | 2 | 138.9 | 6 | 7.6 | 11 | 262 | 1373 |
| 48 | Rajat Patidar | RCB | IND | 213 | 52 | 11 | 18 | 173.2 | 0 | - | 11 | 260 | 73 |
| 49 | Harshit Rana | KKR | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 14 | 9.6 | 9 | 259 | 731 |
| 50 | Mustafizur Rahman | CSK | BAN | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 14 | 9.3 | 9 | 249 | 760 |
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
