Champions Trophy: The 50 Most Valuable Players

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji list the 50 Most Valuable Players in the 2025 Champions Trophy.

IMAGE: Axar Patel in action against New Zealand in the Champions Trophy final in Dubai, March 9, 2025. Photograph: Satish Kumar/Reuters

The 2025 Champions Trophy has just ended and we decided to check who were the 50 most valuable players.

Our formula to compute the Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) is over 20 years old. Its merit is that it is intuitive and not very complicated. Its weakness could be that it isn't sufficiently complicated.

Let us explain. The basic idea is to decide a tournament par score; performances over par are rewarded more, while sub-par performances diminish rankings. The key, therefore, is to make a good estimate of the par score.

IMAGE: New Zealand's Rachin Ravindra in action against South Africa in the Champions Trophy semi-final, March 5, 2025. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

For the 2025 Champions Trophy, we determined the par score to be 275 (it was 300 for the 2023 World Cup) by a simple averaging process. But here's the rub: The par score for matches played in Pakistan was well above 300, and for matches in Dubai it was well below 250.

So even a very good performance in Dubai would be consider sub-par. That's why there's only one Indian in the top 5 (see table below), even though India was the best team in the 2025 Champions Trophy.

One can debate how much playing at a single Dubai venue helped India win, but there's no doubt that by playing only at Dubai the Indian players have diminished MVPI values.

Rank	Player	Team	MVPI	Top Score	Runs	4s	6s	Str Rate	Wkts	Eco	Match
1	Rachin Ravindra	NZ	423	112	263	29	3	106.5	3	4.7	4
2	Michael Bracewell	NZ	405	53	82	7	3	118.8	8	4.1	5
3	Mitchell Santner	NZ	326	28	38	1	2	90.5	9	4.8	5
4	Axar Patel	IND	320	42	109	6	3	74.1	5	4.4	5
5	Matt Henry	NZ	286	2	2	0	0	50	10	5.3	4
6	Varun Chakrvarthy	IND	272	0	0	0	0	-	9	4.5	3
7	Ben Duckett	ENG	267	165	227	25	3	108.6	0	-	3
8	Glenn Philips	NZ	265	61	177	13	8	114.9	2	6.9	5
9	Virat Kohli	IND	243	100	218	15	0	82.9	0	-	5
10	Shreyas Iyer	IND	243	79	243	16	5	79.4	0	-	5
11	Mohammed Shami	IND	243	5	5	0	0	62.5	9	5.7	5
12	Tom Latham	NZ	242	118	205	13	3	87.2	0	-	5
13	Ibrahim Zadran	AFG	233	177	194	13	7	110.9	0	-	2
14	Joe Root	ENG	229	120	225	19	2	96.6	0	6.6	3
15	Kuldeep Yadav	IND	228	1	1	0	0	100	7	4.8	5
16	Azmatullah Omarzai	AFG	227	41	59	4	3	101.7	6	6.1	2
17	Kane Williamson	NZ	221	102	200	19	2	85.5	0	-	5
18	Hardik Pandya	IND	218	45	99	7	6	106.5	4	5.8	5
19	Ravindra Jadeja	IND	217	16	27	2	0	100	5	4.4	5
20	Rassi van der Dussen	SA	209	72	193	13	7	97	0	-	3
21	Jofra Archer	ENG	206	25	60	8	1	122.4	6	6.9	3
22	KL Rahul	IND	201	42	140	5	5	97.9	0	-	5
23	Rohit Sharma	IND	200	76	180	21	6	100	0	-	5
24	Wiaann Mulder	SA	198	12	20	2	1	105.3	6	4.9	3
25	Ryan Rickelton	SA	178	103	147	16	1	102.8	0	-	3
26	Kasigo Rabada	SA	176	16	16	2	0	72.7	6	5.8	3
27	Josh Inglis	AUS	172	120	131	8	6	133.7	0	-	2
28	Mohhamad Nabi	AFG	172	40	48	2	3	117.1	4	6	2
29	Alex Carey	AUS	165	69	130	16	1	108.3	0	-	2
30	David Miller	SA	162	100	121	11	5	139.1	0	-	3
31	Shubman Gill	IND	158	101	188	17	3	75.5	0	-	5
32	Khushdil Shah	PAK	157	69	107	10	3	121.6	1	5.7	2
33	Will Young	NZ	157	107	165	20	1	82.5	0	-	5
34	Rishad Hossain	BAN	155	26	44	3	3	118.9	3	5	2
35	Lungi Ngidi	SA	149	1	1	0	0	50	6	6.4	3
36	William Orourke	NZ	142	1	1	0	0	50	6	6.2	5
37	Marco Jansen	SA	136	3	3	0	0	37.5	4	6	3
38	Harshit Rana	IND	131	0	0	0	0	-	4	4	2
39	Mamus Labuschange	AUS	123	47	76	7	1	93.8	2	8.2	2
40	Aiden Markram	SA	115	52	83	9	1	127.7	0	5.8	3
41	Ban Dwarshuis	AUS	113	19	19	1	1	65.5	4	6.2	2
42	Keshav Maharaj	SA	108	1	1	0	0	25	3	4.9	3
43	Rahamat Shah	AFG	105	90	94	9	1	93.1	0	-	2
44	Temba Bavuma	SA	103	58	114	9	1	77.6	0	-	2
45	Daryl Mitchell	NZ	102	63	139	8	1	70.6	0	-	4
46	Liam Livingstone	ENG	100	14	33	3	3	82.5	3	6.5	3
47	Kyle Jemison	NZ	100	9	9	0	1	225	3	5.5	4
48	Adam Zampa	AUS	97	7	7	0	0	58.3	4	6.2	2
49	Adil Rashid	ENG	91	5	8	0	0	47.1	3	5.3	3
50	Heinrich Klaasen	SA	91	64	67	11	0	106.3	0	-	2

Readers will recall that the Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) collapses a player's batting + bowling + fielding performance into a single 'run equivalent'.

The formula to compute the MVP is devised to reward batsmen who score a lot of runs quickly, bowlers who take wickets at low economy rates and fielders who field the best (take a lot of catches, and participate in run outs).