Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle present Rediff's Most Valuable Player Index of IPL 2026 after Game 29.
The question was never 'if', it was 'when'.
After another typical electric innings over the weekend, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is currently the MVP of IPL 2026 with an MVPI of 338. Rajat Patidar (322), Ishan Kishan (305), Heinrich Klaasen (302) and Priyansh Arya (295) take the next four places.
Recall that MVPI rewards players who score a lot of runs very quickly, take a lot of wickets with a good economy rate, and take the most catches and participate in the most run out dismissals (wicket-keepers are advantaged by this fielding criteria, and, sadly, the metric fails to recognize some astonishing Shreyas Iyer type of catches).
The Player Vasool Index identifies the following five players in the top 50 that offer the best value for every US dollar they receive (we've converted INR to US$ because it has fewer digits).
For every 'run equivalent' he contributes, Ayush Mhatre receives only US$59. Other truly Paisa Vasool players in the top 50 are Prince Yadav (65), Kartik Tyagi (101), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (150), and Sarfaraz Khan (180).
By the same calculation, the most expensive performers in the top 50 are Cameron Green (PVI of 7742), Rishabh Pant (7151), Anshul Kamboj (6097), Rinku Singh (4888) and Shreyas Iyer (4797). If we look down our spreadsheet, we even have players who earn 5-digit US$ for every run equivalent contributed!
Table 1 list the top 50 performing players so far in the 2026 IPL.
We hope to publish MVPI and PVI updates every Monday during the current IPL season.
Top 50 Performing Players So Far In IPL 2026 (after Match 29 ending 19.4.26)
| RANK | PLAYER | TEAM | FROM | RUNS | STRIKE RATE | WICKETS | ECONOMY RATE | GAMES | MVPI | PVI(US$) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vaibhav Sooryavanshi | RR | IND | 246 | 238.8 | 0 | - | 5 | 338 | 150 |
| 2 | Rajat Patidar | RCB | IND | 230 | 213 | 0 | - | 6 | 322 | 1574 |
| 3 | Ishan Kishan | SRH | IND | 213 | 188.5 | 0 | - | 6 | 305 | 1700 |
| 4 | Heinrich Klaasen | SRH | SA | 283 | 144.4 | 0 | - | 6 | 302 | 3510 |
| 5 | Priyansh Arya | PBKS | IND | 211 | 248.2 | 0 | - | 6 | 295 | 594 |
| 6 | Shubman Gill | GT | IND | 251 | 154.9 | 0 | - | 4 | 289 | 2193 |
| 7 | Jos Buttler | GT | ENG | 201 | 159.5 | 0 | - | 5 | 288 | 2100 |
| 8 | Dhruv Jurel | RR | IND | 181 | 170.8 | 0 | - | 6 | 284 | 2272 |
| 9 | Virat Kohli | RCB | IND | 247 | 157.3 | 0 | - | 6 | 283 | 3420 |
| 10 | Phil Salt | RCB | ENG | 202 | 168.3 | 0 | - | 6 | 260 | 2038 |
| 11 | Prabhsimran Singh | PBKS | IND | 211 | 171.5 | 0 | - | 6 | 259 | 712 |
| 12 | Shreyas Iyer | PBKS | IND | 208 | 182.5 | 0 | - | 6 | 257 | 4797 |
| 13 | Anshul Kamboj | CSK | IND | 39 | 130 | 13 | 9.7 | 6 | 257 | 6097 |
| 14 | Cooper Connolly | PBKS | AUS | 223 | 164 | 0 | - | 6 | 254 | 544 |
| 15 | Abhishek Sharma | SRH | ND | 188 | 229.3 | 0 | 12.4 | 6 | 250 | 2581 |
| 16 | Nitish Kumar Reddy | SRH | IND | 136 | 160 | 4 | 9.2 | 6 | 244 | 1133 |
| 17 | Yashasvi Jaiswal | RR | IND | 223 | 152.7 | 0 | - | 6 | 239 | 3471 |
| 18 | Jamie Overton | CSK | ENG | 103 | 141.1 | 8 | 9.5 | 5 | 239 | 2892 |
| 19 | Ayush Mhatre | CSK | IND | 201 | 177.9 | 0 | - | 6 | 233 | 59 |
| 20 | Sanju Samson | CSK | IND | 192 | 174.5 | 0 | - | 6 | 225 | 3687 |
| 21 | Tim David | RCB | AUS | 173 | 203.5 | 0 | 18 | 6 | 216 | 640 |
| 22 | Devdutt Padikkal | RCB | IND | 153 | 177.9 | 0 | - | 6 | 213 | 433 |
| 23 | Prince Yadav | LSG | IND | 0 | - | 11 | 8.6 | 6 | 213 | 65 |
| 24 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | RCB | IND | 12 | 133.3 | 10 | 8.3 | 6 | 213 | 2326 |
| 25 | Prasidh Krishna | GT | IND | 0 | - | 11 | 9.2 | 5 | 209 | 1746 |
| 26 | KL Rahul | DC | IND | 168 | 168 | 0 | - | 5 | 207 | 2597 |
| 27 | Angkrish Raghuvanshi | KKR | IND | 200 | 142.9 | 0 | - | 7 | 202 | 798 |
| 28 | Sunil Narine | KKR | WI | 36 | 138.5 | 6 | 6.8 | 6 | 197 | 3275 |
| 29 | Jofra Archer | RR | ENG | 11 | 91.7 | 8 | 8.5 | 6 | 194 | 2969 |
| 30 | Ravindra Jadeja | RR | AUS | 85 | 119.7 | 5 | 6.5 | 6 | 194 | 3326 |
| 31 | Sarfaraz Khan | CSK | IND | 147 | 170.9 | 0 | - | 6 | 192 | 180 |
| 32 | Ravi Bishnoi | RR | IND | 0 | 0 | 10 | 9.5 | 6 | 190 | 1746 |
| 33 | Cameron Green | KKR | AUS | 162 | 151.4 | 1 | 14.2 | 7 | 175 | 7742 |
| 34 | Rishabh Pant | LSG | IND | 147 | 136.1 | 0 | - | 6 | 174 | 7151 |
| 35 | Tristan Stubbs | DC | SA | 169 | 133.1 | 0 | - | 5 | 172 | 2233 |
| 36 | Aiden Markram | LSG | SA | 162 | 160.4 | 0 | 16.4 | 6 | 170 | 542 |
| 37 | Sameer Rizvi | DC | IND | 168 | 151.4 | 0 | - | 5 | 170 | 215 |
| 38 | Eshan Malinga | SRH | SA | 0 | - | 8 | 9.7 | 6 | 163 | 339 |
| 39 | Rashid Khan | GT | AFG | 24 | 141.2 | 6 | 7.7 | 5 | 163 | 4241 |
| 40 | Krunal Pandya | RCB | IND | 13 | 81.3 | 8 | 8.6 | 6 | 161 | 1646 |
| 41 | Kartik Tyagi | KKR | IND | 11 | 122.2 | 8 | 9.5 | 7 | 159 | 101 |
| 42 | Ajinkya Rahane | KKR | IND | 152 | 144.8 | 0 | - | 7 | 159 | 507 |
| 43 | Sai Sudharsan | GT | IND | 135 | 146.7 | 0 | - | 5 | 156 | 2092 |
| 44 | Ryan Rickelton | MI | SA | 137 | 159.3 | 0 | - | 5 | 151 | 254 |
| 45 | Mitchell Marsh | LSG | AUS | 155 | 134.8 | 0 | - | 6 | 150 | 1045 |
| 46 | Rohit Sharma | MI | IND | 137 | 165.1 | 0 | - | 4 | 150 | 4173 |
| 47 | Mukul Choudhary | LSG | IND | 148 | 145.1 | 0 | - | 6 | 149 | 804 |
| 48 | Shivam Dube | CSK | IND | 123 | 150 | 1 | 15 | 6 | 147 | 3762 |
| 49 | Lungi Ngidi | DC | SA | 3 | 60 | 7 | 8.4 | 5 | 146 | 526 |
| 50 | Rinku Singh | KKR | IND | 132 | 130.7 | 0 | - | 7 | 143 | 4888 |
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
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