Jos Buttler Overtakes Pooran As MVP

Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle present Rediff's Most Valuable Player Index of IPL 2025 after Game 55.

Jos Buttler

IMAGE: Jos Buttler of Gujarat Titans hits a six during the IPL 2025 game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, May 2, 2025. Photograph: BCCI

The MVP race in the 2025 IPL is hotting up. After Match 55, Jos Buttler finds himself on top with a MVPI of 571. His closest contenders are likely to be Suryakumar Yadav (#3 with MVPI of 562), Sai Sudharsan (#4, 554), Shubman Gill (#7, 524) and Virat Kohli (#8, 516).

Nicholas Pooran (#2 at 562), Yashasvi Jaiswal (#5 at 535) and Riyan Parag (#6 at 527) are still in the reckoning, but we must expect this trio to drop down because LSG are unlikely to be in the play-off matches, and RR definitely won't be there.

With a significant number of 200+ totals in this IPL season, the bowlers are disadvantaged. It is almost certain that no bowler will be a contender.

The bowlers performing well include Prasidh Krishna (#16 with MVPI of 425), Krunal Pandya (#23, 367), Varun Chakravarthy (#24, 353) and Josh Hazlewood (#26, 349).

The best all-rounders so far have been Sunil Narine (#11, 480), Hardik Pandya (#15, 446), Ravindra Jadeja (#17, 415) and Axar Patel (#18, 408).

Suryakumar Yadav

IMAGE: Suryakumar Yadav celebrates his half-century in IPL 2025. Photograph: BCCI

However, the biggest takeaway from the IPL table is that Indian players (often young Indian players) have dominated this year's IPL. Eight out of the top 10 have been Indian players; only six in the top 20 are foreign players.

Players offering the best value for money include Vipraj Nigam ($140 paid for every 'run' scored) Ryan Rickelton (PVI of 204), Ajinkya Rahane (396), Aiden Markram (410), Prabhsimran Singh (738), Priyansh Arya (784), Mitchell Marsh (790), Tim David (976) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (983).

The MVPI formula also allows us to more accurately rate the top batting and bowling performances, and determine the contenders for, what we might call, the 'Shadow Orange Cap' and 'Shadow Purple Cap'.

Shadow Orange Cap current owner: Suryakumar Yadav (538). Current contenders: Jos Buttler (523), B Sai Sudharsan (518)

Shadow Purple Cap current owner: Prasidh Krishna (401). Current contenders: Varun Chakravarthy (346) Josh Hazlewood (345)

For the Purple Cap, our shadow owner, Prasidh Krishna, is also the official owner. The current Orange Cap owner Virat Kohli (505 runs, at 143.5 strike rate) is behind the shadow owner Suryakumar Yadav (475 runs at 172.7)

IPL 2025: Best Performing Players after Match 55 ending 5.5.25

Rank	Player	Team	From	Runs	Top Score	4s	6s	Strike Rate	Wickets	Economy Rate	Games	MVPI	PVI(US$)
1	Jos Buttler	GT	ENG	470	97	46	21	169.1	0	-	10	571	2318
2	Nicholas Pooran	LSG	WI	410	87	34	34	201	0	-	11	562	3454
3	Suryakumar Yadav	MI	IND	475	68	46	26	172.7	0	-	11	562	2689
4	B Sai Sudarshan	GT	IND	504	82	55	16	154.1	0	-	10	554	1289
5	Yashasvi Jaiswal	RR	IND	473	75	46	25	154.6	0	-	12	535	3393
6	Riyan Parag	RR	IND	377	95	27	26	170.6	2	7.9	12	527	2679
7	Shubman Gill	GT	IND	465	90	48	15	162	0	-	10	524	2646
8	Virat Kohli	RCB	IND	505	73	44	18	143.5	0	-	11	516	3762
9	Prabhsimran Singh	PBKS	IND	437	91	45	24	170	0	-	11	501	738
10	Shreyas Iyer	PBKS	IND	405	97	27	27	180.8	0	-	11	492	5026
11	Sunil Narine	KKR	WI	189	44	18	15	170.3	10	7.6	10	480	2311
12	Ryan Rickelton	MI	SA	334	62	42	15	153.9	0	-	11	454	204
13	Aiden Markram	LSG	SA	348	66	31	16	146.8	4	8.8	11	451	410
14	Priyansh Arya	PBKS	IND	347	103	37	22	192.8	0	-	11	448	784
15	Hardik Pandya	MI	IND	157	48	15	7	172.5	13	8.9	10	446	3389
16	Prasidh Krishna	GT	IND	0	0	0	0	-	19	7.5	10	425	1878
17	Ravindra Jadeja	CSK	AUS	260	77	22	8	137.6	7	8.5	11	415	4009
18	Axar Patel	DC	IND	238	43	21	14	157.6	5	8.2	11	408	3738
19	Mitchell Marsh	LSG	AUS	378	81	36	20	155.6	0	-	10	398	790
20	Abhishek Sharma	SRH	ND	314	141	35	17	180.5	0	9.7	11	397	3260
21	K L Rahul	DC	IND	381	93	30	16	142.2	0	-	10	396	3268
22	Heinrich Klaasen	SRH	SA	311	71	29	13	154	0	-	11	382	5566
23	Krunal Pandya	RCB	IND	97	73	7	4	129.3	14	8.6	11	367	1448
24	Varun Chakravarthy	KKR	IND	1	1	0	0	100	15	7.2	11	353	3142
25	Ajinkya Rahane	KKR	IND	327	61	29	18	146.6	0	-	11	350	396
26	Josh Hazlewood	RCB	AUS	0	0	0	0	0	18	8.4	10	349	3311
27	Ayush Badoni	LSG	IND	326	74	27	14	150.2	0	-	11	345	1072
28	Arshdeep Singh	PBKS	IND	2	1	0	0	33.3	16	8	11	343	4851
29	Pat Cummins	SRH	AUS	84	22	6	6	161.5	13	9.4	11	339	4908
30	Vipraj Nigam	DC	IND	122	39	12	7	179.4	9	9.5	11	330	140
31	Noor Ahmad	CSK	AFG	3	2	0	0	21.4	16	8.1	11	316	2925
32	Kuldeep Yadav	DC	IND	11	5	2	0	137.5	12	6.7	11	314	3901
33	Travis Head	SRH	AUS	281	67	41	9	156.1	0	-	10	310	4175
34	Rohit Sharma	MI	IND	293	76	27	17	155	0	-	10	309	4876
35	Abishek Porel	DC	IND	265	51	27	9	149.7	0	-	11	304	1216
36	Trent Boult	MI	NZ	2	1	0	0	66.7	16	8.8	11	301	3839
37	Philip Salt	RCB	ENG	239	65	30	13	168.3	0	-	9	301	3532
38	Marco Jansen	PBKS	SA	75	34	3	4	123	11	8.8	11	300	2157
39	Dhruv Jurel	RR	IND	249	70	17	15	146.5	0	-	12	288	4902
40	Tim David	RCB	AUS	186	50	16	14	193.8	0	-	11	284	976
41	Tristan Stubbs	DC	SA	259	41	23	9	151.5	0	20	11	282	3278
42	Angkrish Raghuvanshi	KKR	IND	285	50	32	12	145.4	0	-	10	282	983
43	Shimron Hetmyer	RR	WI	216	52	15	10	146.9	0	-	12	281	3947
44	Mohammed Siraj	GT	IND	0	0	0	0	-	14	8.9	10	272	3785
45	Tilak Varma	MI	IND	239	59	20	10	140.6	0	-	11	271	2729
46	Andre Russell	KKR	WI	129	57	12	11	161.3	8	11.9	11	267	4154
47	Jasprit Bumrah	MI	IND	0	0	0	0	0	11	7	7	266	6255
48	Will Jacks	MI	ENG	142	36	12	6	122.4	5	7.1	10	266	1824
49	Naman Dhir	MI	IND	155	46	14	8	184.5	0	4	11	265	1831
50	Harshal Patel	SRH	IND	21	12	0	0	80.8	14	9.4	10	261	2833