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