IPL 2021: Why Harshal Patel Is MVP

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)

Rank	Name	Team	From	Run	Top Score	4s	6s	Strike Rate	Wkts	Economy Rate	Played	MVPI	PVI (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

IPL 2021: Why Harshal Patel Is MVP

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