World Cup 2023: Jadeja Races To Top MVP Race

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present Rediff.com's Most Valuable Player Index after 37 World Cup 2023 games.

IMAGE: Ravindra Jadeja celebrates taking five wickets in the game against South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, November 5, 2023. Photograph: BCCI/X

After his outstanding performance at the Eden Gardens on Sunday night (29 runs at a strike rate of 193, and 5 wickets at an economy rate of 3.67), Ravindra Jadeja has jumped to the top of the Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) list with a MVPI of 710.

Marco Jansen is second with a MVPI of 671 even though he had his first poor game on Sunday night.

In spite of his century, and an aggregate of 543, Virat Kohli is 12th on the list (MVPI of 497) because of his relatively lower strike rate of 88.3.

Quinton de Kock aggregates just 7 runs more than Kohli, but is placed third with a MVPI of 671 because of his higher strike rate (111.3) and higher fielding points (remember that wicket- keepers usually take the most catches and participate in many more run out dismissals).

India is dominating this World Cup like almost no team has dominated before (although Australia in 2003 and 2007 were probably also there).

This is evident from the fact that 5 Indians feature in the top 15 on the MVPI list.

Recall that MVPI identifies players who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate and take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate.

Most Valuable Players in World Cup 2023 (after 37 matches)

Rank	Player	Team	Runs	Top Score	4s	6s	Strike Rate	Wickets	Economy Rate	Games	MVPI
1	Ravindra Jadeja	IND	111	39	7	3	115.6	14	3.8	8	710
2	Marco Jansen	SA	157	75	9	9	111.3	17	6.4	8	671
3	Quinton de Kock	SA	550	174	55	18	111.3	0	-	8	671
4	Rachin Ravindra	NZ	523	123	49	14	107.4	3	6.1	8	653
5	Adam Zampa	AUS	48	29	5	0	80	19	5.5	7	639
6	Mitchell Santner	NZ	94	36	6	5	132.4	14	5.2	8	626
7	Jasprit Bumrah	IND	17	16	1	0	65.4	15	3.7	8	613
8	Shaheen Afridi	PAK	30	13	4	0	81.1	16	5.8	8	530
9	Dilshan Madushanka	SL	9	5	2	0	50	18	6.4	7	529
10	Rohit Sharma	IND	442	131	50	22	122.8	0	-	8	529
11	Mohammed Shami	IND	4	2	0	0	40	16	4.3	4	522
12	Keshav Maharaj	SA	55	40	7	1	76.4	12	4.7	8	511
13	David Warner	AUS	428	163	39	20	111.7	0	-	7	508
14	Virat Kohli	IND	543	103	50	6	88.3	0	4	8	497
15	Kuldeep Yadav	IND	9	9	1	0	69.2	12	4.2	8	495
16	Kushal Mendis	SL	269	122	25	14	121.7	0	-	7	472
17	Glenn Maxwell	AUS	196	106	19	12	148.5	4	4.8	6	470
18	Adil Rashid	ENG	91	20	7	2	102.2	10	4.9	7	464
19	Heinrich Klaasen	SA	316	109	23	17	144.3	0	-	8	453
20	Glenn Phillips	NZ	227	71	15	12	107.1	6	5.8	8	449
21	Pat Cummins	AUS	102	37	10	5	114.6	10	6.1	7	446
22	Aiden Markram	SA	371	106	41	8	118.2	0	6.2	8	442
23	Kasigo Rabada	SA	15	9	0	1	45.5	12	5	7	435
24	Daryl Mtchell	NZ	375	130	34	13	108.1	0	8	8	435
25	Gerald Coetzee	SA	35	22	2	1	89.7	14	6.9	6	428
26	Mehidy Hasan Miraz	BAN	169	57	17	2	74.1	9	5.5	7	420
27	Mohammad Rizwan	PAK	359	131	36	5	98.9	0	-	8	420
28	Logan van Beek	NET	122	59	7	3	75.3	10	5.6	6	414
29	Bas de Leede	NET	117	67	12	2	70.5	11	7	7	399
30	Azmatullah Omarzai	AFG	234	73	18	8	99.2	5	7	7	387
31	Trent Boult	NZ	19	10	1	1	82.6	10	5.4	8	384
32	Matt Henry	NZ	19	10	1	1	86.4	11	5.8	7	382
33	Rashid Khan	AFG	56	23	5	2	88.9	7	4.6	7	381
34	Aryan Dutt	NET	64	23	1	5	87.7	8	5.1	7	376
35	Sadeera Samarawickrama	SL	331	108	32	4	103.1	0	-	7	371
36	Josh Hazlewood	AUS	4	2	0	0	80	10	5.4	7	356
37	Colin Ackermann	NET	182	69	21	0	79.5	5	4.8	7	356
38	Haris Rauf	PAK	18	16	2	1	81.8	13	6.8	8	354
39	Mohammed Siraj	IND	0	0	0	0	-	10	5.2	8	346
40	Devon Conway	NZ	314	152	42	4	101.6	0	-	8	344
41	Rassie van der Dussen	SA	366	133	33	7	90.6	0	-	8	343
42	Paul van Meekeren	NET	19	7	2	0	40.4	10	5.5	7	337
43	Mohammad Nabi	AFG	41	19	3	0	65.1	6	4	7	327
44	Abdullah Shafique	PAK	336	113	36	9	93.9	0	-	7	324
45	David Miller	SA	231	53	16	14	127.6	0	-	8	311
46	Shakib Al Hasan	BAN	104	43	9	2	64.6	7	5.2	6	310
47	Shreyas Iyer	IND	293	82	22	10	97.3	0	-	8	310
48	Mujeeb Ur Rahman	AFG	43	28	6	1	122.9	7	5.3	7	309
49	Mitchell Starc	AUS	68	28	5	1	64.2	9	6.4	7	304
50	Chris Woakes	ENG	76	32	9	1	71.7	8	5.9	6	299

Finally, here's something for World Cup romantics.

How was the MVPI table looking like at approximately the same point in the 2019 World Cup? Table 2 provides the answer.

A lot can indeed change after four years!

IMAGE: Australia's Aaron Finch bats in the game against India during World Cup 2019. Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters

Most Valuable Players in World Cup 2019 (after 35 matches)

Rank	Player	Team	Runs	Top Score	4s	6s	Strike Rate	Wickets	Economy Rate	Games	MVPI
1	Aaron Finch	AUS	496	153	46	18	104	1	6.5	7	667
2	Joe Root	ENG	432	107	37	2	92.7	2	3.9	7	579
3	David Warner	AUS	500	166	46	6	87.3	0	-	7	538
4	Ben Stokes	ENG	291	89	27	6	90.9	5	3.3	7	527
5	Shakib Al Hasan	BAN	352	121	32	2	92.4	3	4.7	5	479
6	Mohammad Amir	PAK	3	3	0	0	37.5	13	3	6	447
7	Kane Williamson	NZ	414	148	37	2	77.8	0	0	6	435
8	Mitchell Starc	AUS	23	8	1	0	82.1	13	3.9	7	427
9	Andile Phehlukwayo	SA	129	46	15	2	84.3	6	2.6	8	427
10	Jofra Archer	ENG	12	7	1	0	60	12	3.4	7	420
11	Mushfiqur Rahim	BAN	326	102	25	3	93.4	0	-	5	416
12	Chris Morris	SA	74	42	4	3	121.3	6	2.2	7	409
13	Eoin Morgan	ENG	274	148	13	22	122.3	0	-	7	389
14	Rohit Sharma	IND	338	140	31	7	93.9	0	-	5	386
15	James Neesham	NZ	173	97	11	5	85.6	6	3.2	6	382
16	Lockie Ferguson	NZ	4	4	1	0	133.3	8	1.8	6	380
17	Virat Kohli	IND	316	82	25	2	98.4	0	-	5	380
18	Colin de Grandhomme	NZ	155	64	14	4	113.1	3	2.2	6	364
19	Babar Azam	PAK	333	101	34	2	85.2	0	-	6	355
20	Imran Tahir	SA	11	10	0	0	68.8	8	3.1	8	349