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Peerless Buttler Set To Finish As IPL 2022 MVPI

May 29, 2022 18:32 IST

Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle list Rediff.com's 50 Most Valuable Players ahead of Sunday's IPL 2022 final between the Gujarat Titans and the Rajasthan Royals.

IMAGE: Rajasthan Royals star Jos Buttler celebrates scoring the winning runs and taking his team into the final against Royals Challengers Bangalore in the IPL 2022 Qualifier 2 match in Ahmedabad on Friday, May 27, 2022. Photograph: BCCI

We don't have to wait for the final between the Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals to know who is the most valuable player of IPL 2022.

We can declare right now that it is Rajasthan Royals' run machine Jos Buttler!

With a Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) of 868, no other player can even step into his lane.

His nearest challengers are Gujarat Titans' duo of Rashid Khan (MVPI: 604) and Hardik Pandya (566), but they are simply too far away.

Buttler's race is really with Virat Kohli of IPL 2016. Compare this before-final 2016 table with the current 2022 table (below), and Kohli comes off slightly better in every column except the number of sixes.

As analysts we are supposed to be unbiased, but we must be allowed to briefly, and wistfully, marvel at what Kohli once was.

MVPI: Virat Kohli in IPL 2016:

 
RankPlayerTeamFromRunsTop Score6sStrike RateWicketsEconomy RateGameMVPIPVI(US$)
1 Virat Kohli RCB IND 919 113 36 151.9 0 13 15 1062 1756

 

This has again been a remarkable IPL. Let us quickly list this year's top three numbers so far.

It is also be interesting to identify the top three players from every country, based on MVPI.

The MVPI formula rewards batsmen who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate, and bowlers who take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate. It also rewards more catches (but not runs saved while fielding)

 

Best Performing Players in IPL 2022 after 73 matches; before the final on May 29, 2022)

 
RankPlayerTeamFromRunsTop Score4s6sStrike RateWicketsEconomy RateGameMVPIPVI(US$)
1 Jos Buttler RR ENG 824 116 78 45 151.5 0 - 16 868 1317
2 Andre Russell KKR WI 335 70 18 32 174.5 17 9.9 14 681 2014
3 Liam Livingstone PBKS ENG 437 70 29 34 182.1 6 8.8 14 651 2019
4 Rashid Khan GT AFG 91 40 3 9 206.8 18 6.7 15 604 2838
5 KL Rahul LSG IND 616 103 45 30 135.4 0 - 15 604 3217
6 Wanindu Hasaranga RCB SL 38 18 4 1 88.4 26 7.5 16 593 2244
7 Quinton deKock LSG SA 508 140 47 23 149 0 - 15 575 1342
8 Hardik Pandya GT IND 453 87 46 11 132.8 5 7.7 14 566 3029
9 Yuzvendra Chahal RR IND 5 5 0 0 62.5 26 7.9 16 553 1343
10 Glenn Maxwell RCB AUS 301 55 31 15 169.1 6 6.9 13 541 2517
11 Sanju Samson RR IND 444 55 41 26 147.5 0 - 16 537 2980
12 R Ashwin RR IND 185 50 14 9 146.8 12 7.4 16 522 1664
13 Kagiso Rabada PBKS SA 48 25 5 2 111.6 23 8.5 13 480 2202
14 David Miller GT SA 449 94 29 22 141.2 0 - 15 459 187
15 Rahul Tripathi SRH IND 413 76 40 20 158.2 0 - 14 459 1940
16 David Warner DC AUS 432 92 52 15 150.5 0 - 12 458 1560
17 Sunil Narine KKR WI 71 22 6 6 177.5 9 5.6 14 457 1500
18 Dinesh Karthik RCB IND 330 66 27 22 183.3 0 - 16 456 1493
19 Harshal Patel RCB IND 43 11 4 2 110.3 19 7.7 15 453 2938
20 Umesh Yadav KKR IND 55 21 4 4 137.5 16 7.1 12 451 507
21 Deepak Hooda LSG IND 451 59 36 18 136.7 1 10.8 15 450 1460
22 Kuldeep Yadav DC IND 48 16 3 2 92.3 21 8.4 14 444 515
23 Moeen Ali CSK ENG 244 93 24 11 137.9 8 6.6 10 443 2064
24 Krunal Pandya LSG IND 183 42 16 4 126.2 10 7 14 443 2128
25 Shubman Gill GT IND 438 96 48 10 136 0 - 15 429 2131
26 Shreyas Iyer KKR IND 401 85 41 11 134.6 0 7 14 422 3318
27 Ishan Kishan MI IND 418 81 45 9 120.1 0 - 14 420 4150
28 Mohammed Shami GT IND 0 0 0 0 - 19 8 15 417 1713
29 Umran Malik SRH IND 4 3 0 0 50 22 9 14 411 1020
30 Rishabh Pant DC IND 340 44 35 16 151.8 0 - 14 410 4460
31 Tilak Varma MI IND 397 61 29 16 131 0 6.5 14 403 482
32 Josh Hazlewood RCB AUS 18 7 1 0 69.2 20 8.1 12 403 2381
33 Faf du Plessis RCB SA 468 96 49 13 127.5 0 - 16 402 2156
34 Shikhar Dhawan PBKS IND 460 88 47 12 122.7 0 - 14 398 2369
35 Axar Patel DC IND 182 42 12 10 151.7 6 7.5 13 390 2637
36 Jasprit Bumrah MI IND 0 0 0 0 0 15 6.7 14 388 3535
37 Prasid Krishna RR IND 6 4 0 0 50 18 8.2 16 387 2953
38 Rahul Chahar PBKS IND 77 25 7 4 113.2 14 7.7 13 384 1563
39 Aiden Markram SRH SA 381 68 25 19 139.1 1 10.7 14 383 711
40 Mohsin Khan LSG IND 23 13 2 1 143.8 14 6 9 378 60
41 Nitish Rana KKR IND 361 57 29 22 143.8 0 11.5 14 374 2445
42 Abhishek Sharma SRH IND 426 75 47 13 133.1 0 9.5 14 374 154
43 Shardul Thakur DC IND 120 29 7 7 137.9 15 9.8 14 370 3320
44 Avesh Khan LSG IND 22 12 0 4 169.2 18 8.7 13 370 3089
45 Shimron Hetmyer RR WI 303 59 19 21 157.8 0 - 14 357 2721
46 Nicholas Pooran SRH WI 306 64 16 21 144.3 0 - 14 357 1232
47 Rajat Patidar RCB IND 333 112 27 18 152.8 0 - 8 355 70
48 Trent Boult RR NZ 29 17 2 0 131.8 15 8.2 15 347 2635
49 Bhuvneshwar Kumar SRH IND 24 8 3 0 92.3 12 7.3 14 338 2635
50 T Natarajan SRH IND 0 0 0 0 - 18 9.4 11 336 1247

  

 

Feature Presentation: Mahipal Soni/Rediff.com

 

PURNENDU MAJI, SRINIVAS BHOGLE