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IPL 2021: Why Harshal Patel Is MVP

Last updated on: October 18, 2021 10:48 IST

Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle list IPL 2021's 50 Most Valuable Players.

IMAGE: Harshal Patel has been a star bowler for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Photograph: BCCI

IPL 14 is over; it seemed to go on and on, but it's finally done with.

The last ten matches before the play-offs were slightly dreary, but, as always, IPL ended on a high.

Who were the top 50 performers of this IPL? The table below lists these 50 names, using the Rediff.com's Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) criterion.

MVPI collapses a player's batting, bowling and fielding performance into a single 'run equivalent'.

IPL viewers these days are introduced to a large variety of player performance indices, each named after a big sponsor.

Almost every such index is a variant, or a near replica, of MVPI that Rediff.com has been publishing right from the time IPL began in 2008.

IMAGE: Ravindra Jadeja, the second MVP in IPL 2021, celebrates Shakib Al Hasan's wicket in the IPL Final, October 15, 2021. Photograph: BCCI

MVPI naturally leads to PVI, the Player Value Index (that sounds a little better when we call it the paisa vasool index).

PVI essentially measures how many US$ the franchise pays a player for every 'run equivalent' that the player contributes.

PVI values span an incredible range -- for example, for every 'run equivalent' contributed, RCB paid Harshal Patel $42, CSK paid Faf du Plessis $405, and KKR paid Sunil Narine $4,276!

This variation is mind-boggling, but the irony is that du Plessis is quite happy to accept a tenth of the price that Narine gets even though he was the better performer at this IPL.

The numbers are simply too big, especially for cricketers who've never seen that sort of money.

We must, in passing, note that PVI only monetises the player's contribution on the playing field, and not via endorsements, brand value or popular appeal.

There are 16 (32%) overseas players in the top 50, which is expected with every team able to play only 4 out of 11 (36%) overseas players.

However, 4 of the top 5 players are Indian. The Indian influence on the IPL is growing.

On the other hand, Australian contributions in IPL have declined significantly. The West Indian, English and even Kiwi players have been more impactful.

 

Best Performing Players in IPL 2021 (based on all 60 matches)

RankNameTeamFromRunTop Score4s6sStrike RateWktsEconomy RatePlayedMVPIPVI (US$)
1 Harshal Patel RCB IND 59 31 6 2 128.3 32 8.1 15 703 42
2 Ravindra Jadeja CSK IND 227 62 19 9 145.5 13 7.1 16 637 1744
3 KL Rahul KXI IND 626 98 48 30 138.8 0   13 629 2429
4 Faf du Plessis CSK SA 633 95 60 23 138.2 0   16 627 405
5 Ruturaj Gaikwad CSK IND 635 101 64 23 136.3 0   16 595 107
6 Glenn Maxwell RCB AUS 513 78 48 21 144.1 3 8.4 15 571 2802
7 Avesh Khan DC IND 5 5 1 0 166.7 24 7.4 16 545 204
8 VarunChakravarthy KKR IND 2 2 0 0 50 18 6.6 17 539 1252
9 Moeen Ali CSK ENG 357 58 31 19 137.3 6 6.4 15 527 2108
10 Rashid Khan SRH AFG 83 22 9 2 120.3 18 6.7 14 524 2385
11 Prithvi Shaw DC IND 479 82 56 18 159.1 0   15 511 373
12 Sanju Samson RR IND 484 119 45 17 136.7 0   14 508 2187
13 Shikhar Dhawan DC IND 587 92 63 16 124.6 0   16 504 1638
14 Jasprit Bumrah MI IND 16 5 1 0 94.1 21 7.5 14 504 1929
15 Sunil Narine KKR WI 62 26 3 5 131.9 16 6.4 14 493 4276
16 Rishabh Pant DC IND 419 58 42 10 128.5 0   16 446 5338
17 Mohammed Shami KXI IND 13 9 0 0 76.5 19 7.5 14 444 1502
18 Yuzvendra Chahal RCB IND 10 8 0 0 37 18 7.1 15 436 2048
19 Mayank Agarwal KXI IND 441 99 42 18 140.4 0   12 431 322
20 Axar Patel DC IND 40 12 2 1 87 15 6.7 12 414 1917
21 Rahul Tripathi KKR IND 397 74 40 11 140.3 0   17 411 246
22 Shardul Thakur CSK IND 5 3 0 0 100 21 8.8 16 409 1009
23 Venkatesh Iyer KKR IND 370 67 37 14 128.5 3 8.1 10 403 84
24 Jason Holder SRH WI 85 47 2 6 118.1 16 7.8 8 398 262
25 Kieron Pollard MI WI 245 87 16 16 148.5 5 7.2 14 398 1884
26 Arshdeep Singh KXI IND 2 1 0 0 66.7 18 8.3 12 388 72
27 AB de Villiers RCB IND 313 76 23 16 148.3 0   15 388 4219
28 Kagiso Rabada DC IND 13 9 2 0 216.7 15 8.1 15 385 1732
29 Shubman Gill KKR IND 478 57 50 12 118.9 0   17 377 805
30 Dwayne Bravo CSK WI 47 23 3 4 261.1 14 7.8 11 376 2702
31 Andre Russell KKR WI 183 54 14 14 152.5 11 9.9 10 375 3823
32 Chris Morris RR SA 67 36 2 5 136.7 15 9.2 11 358 6304
33 Devdutt Padikkal RCB IND 411 101 44 14 125.3 0   14 358 83
34 Virat Kohli RCB IND 405 72 43 9 119.5 0   15 352 7187
35 Mohammed Siraj RCB IND 20 12 1 1 76.9 11 6.8 15 339 1141
36 Lockie Ferguson KKR NZ 18 18 1 1 150 13 7.5 8 328 823
37 Deepak Chahar CSK IND 1 1 0 0 100 14 8.4 15 326 390
38 Suryakumar Yadav MI IND 317 82 40 10 143.4 0   14 323 1376
39 Ravi Bishnoi KXI IND 1 1 0 0 25 12 6.4 9 323 860
40 Rahul Chahar MI IND 14 8 1 0 93.3 13 7.4 11 321 822
41 Nitish Rana KKR IND 383 80 34 17 122 0 6 17 317 1809
42 Rohit Sharma MI IND 381 63 33 14 127.4 0 11.1 13 315 6614
43 Anrich Nortje DC SA 0 0 0 0   12 6.2 8 306 466
44 Trent Boult MI NZ 1 1 0 0 25 13 7.9 14 306 1452
45 Shivam Mavi KKR IND 25 20 2 2 125 11 7.2 9 304 1664
46 MustafizurRahman RR BAN 8 8 0 1 57.1 14 8.4 14 300 463
47 Chetan Sakariya RR IND 16 7 2 0 64 14 8.2 14 297 94
48 Shimron Hetmyer DC WI 242 53 19 12 168.1 0   14 293 4198
49 Jos Buttler RR ENG 254 124 27 13 153 0   7 289 2115
50 Ambati Rayudu CSK IND 257 72 16 17 151.2 0   16 285 1225

 

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com

PURNENDU MAJI, SRINIVAS BHOGLE