Rajat Patidar Tops IPL 2026 MVP Index, Kishan and Sooryavanshi Follow

Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle present Rediff's Most Valuable Player Index of IPL 2026 after Game 24.

Rajat Patidar in action

IMAGE: Royal Challengers Bengaluru Captain Rajat Patidar celebrates his half century against the Rajasthan Royals at the Assam Cricket Association stadium in Guwahati, April 10, 2026. Photograph: Sahiba Chawdhary/Reuters

Key Points

Rajat Patidar is currently the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of IPL 2026, with an MVPI of 312, ahead of Ishan Kishan (306) and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (288).
The Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) quantifies player performance by converting all batting, bowling, and fielding contributions into a single 'runs equivalent'.
The Paisa Vasool Index (PVI) measures the return on investment for franchises, indicating the money paid per 'run equivalent' contributed by the player, with lower PVI values signifying better value.

Rajat Patidar is currently the MVP of the 2026 IPL with a Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) of 312. But it's very early days with over 50 matches to go.

Ishan Kishan (MVPI: 306) is second, and young Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (288) is third.

Ishan Kishan

IMAGE: Sunrisers Hyderabad's Ishan Kishan in action against the Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi international cricket stadium in Hyderabad on April 13, 2026. Photograph: Reuters

Understanding the MVPI

To understand -- or interpret -- the MVPI, imagine that all batting, bowling and fielding performances are reduced to a single 'runs equivalent'.

MVPI is the highest for players who score a lot of runs with a high strike rate, take a lot of wickets with a low economy rate, and field the best (by taking more catches or participating in more run out dismissals).

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi

IMAGE: The fearless and unstoppable Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Photograph: BCCI

The Paisa Vasool Index Explained

There's another metric that we compute: It's called the Paisa Vasool Index (PVI); you can also think of it as the 'player value index'.

PVI is the amount of money the franchise pays (converted to US$) for every 'run equivalent' contributed by the player. The lower the PVI, the better is the return on investment for the franchise.

The wide variation in the PVI is an indicator of the acute asymmetry that we witness in the auctions.

The auction is full of drama, but it is also guilty of being both very kind and very unkind to players.

Top 50 Performing Players So Far In IPL 2026 (after Match 24 ending 16.4.26)

RANK	PLAYER	TEAM	FROM	RUNS	TOP SCORE	4s	6s	STRIKE RATE	WICKETS	ECONOMY RATE	GAMES	MVPI	PVI(US$)
1	Rajat Patidar	RCB	IND	222	63	12	21	213.5	0	-	5	312	1354
2	Ishan Kishan	SRH	IND	213	91	22	12	190.2	0	-	5	306	1412
3	Vaibhav Sooryavanshi	RR	IND	200	78	18	18	266.7	0	-	4	288	147
4	Dhruv Jurel	RR	IND	176	81	17	8	177.8	0	-	5	273	1969
5	Virat Kohli	RCB	IND	228	69	25	8	158.3	0	-	5	258	3126
6	Prabhsimran Singh	PBKS	IND	211	80	22	11	173	0	-	5	254	605
7	Shreyas Iyer	PBKS	IND	203	69	14	14	188	0	-	5	250	4109
8	Heinrich Klaasen	SRH	SA	224	62	13	8	142.7	0	-	5	231	3824
9	Jos Buttler	GT	ENG	176	60	22	7	158.6	0	-	4	228	2122
10	Sanju Samson	CSK	IND	185	115	21	8	172.9	0	-	5	210	3292
11	Yashasvi Jaiswal	RR	IND	184	77	19	10	157.3	0	-	5	205	3372
12	Devdutt Padikkal	RCB	IND	135	61	16	6	184.9	0	-	5	197	390
13	Angkrish Raghuvanshi	KKR	IND	182	52	20	7	155.6	0	-	5	195	591
14	Ayush Mhatre	CSK	IND	171	73	15	11	171	0	-	5	192	60
15	Shubman Gill	GT	IND	165	70	16	6	147.3	0	-	3	192	2640
16	Tim David	RCB	AUS	147	70	9	13	216.2	0	18	5	189	610
17	Phil Salt	RCB	ENG	139	78	12	8	169.5	0	-	5	185	2387
18	Nitish Kumar Reddy	SRH	IND	124	56	7	10	161	2	9.9	5	185	1245
19	Anshul Kamboj	CSK	IND	26	19	2	1	118.2	10	10.1	5	184	7096
20	Ravi Bishnoi	RR	IND	0	0	0	0	0	9	9.3	5	180	1536
21	Prasidh Krishna	GT	IND	0	0	0	0	-	10	9.5	4	178	1640
22	Jamie Overton	CSK	ENG	87	43	7	4	150	5	9.6	4	176	3273
23	Sarfaraz Khan	CSK	IND	122	50	17	6	182.1	0	-	5	171	168
24	Sameer Rizvi	DC	IND	166	90	13	11	153.7	0	-	4	170	172
25	Abhishek Sharma	SRH	ND	129	74	9	13	215	0	12	5	169	3181
26	Jofra Archer	RR	ENG	3	2	0	0	42.9	7	8.5	5	167	2874
27	Prince Yadav	LSG	IND	0	0	0	0	-	9	9.1	5	166	69
28	Priyansh Arya	PBKS	IND	118	57	10	11	245.8	0	-	5	164	890
29	Ajinkya Rahane	KKR	IND	152	67	8	9	149	0	-	5	157	367
30	Rashid Khan	GT	AFG	24	24	3	0	141.2	5	6.9	4	153	3614
31	Ryan Rickelton	MI	SA	137	81	9	12	159.3	0	-	5	151	254
32	Rohit Sharma	MI	IND	137	78	13	8	165.1	0	-	4	150	4173
33	Cooper Connolly	PBKS	AUS	136	72	13	7	151.1	0	-	5	149	773
34	Bhuvneshwar Kumar	RCB	IND	9	9	1	0	128.6	7	8.7	5	146	2828
35	Quinton de Kock	MI	SA	112	112	8	7	186.7	0	-	1	140	274
36	Pathum Nissanka	DC	SL	127	44	17	4	153	0	-	4	136	904
37	Sai Sudharsan	GT	IND	113	73	16	3	148.7	0	-	4	136	1920
38	Aiden Markram	LSG	SA	120	45	14	6	151.9	0	10.5	5	136	565
39	Sherfane Rutherford	MI	WI	102	71	4	11	200	0	-	5	134	745
40	Mukul Choudhary	LSG	IND	127	54	8	10	149.4	0	-	5	133	751
41	Washington Sundar	GT	IND	98	55	11	3	155.6	1	9.1	4	131	750
42	Mohammed Shami	LSG	IND	14	12	1	1	127.3	4	6.8	5	131	2931
43	Ravindra Jadeja	RR	AUS	76	45	7	0	118.8	3	8.1	5	131	4104
44	Shivam Dube	CSK	IND	102	45	10	4	154.5	1	15	5	129	3572
45	KL Rahul	DC	IND	111	92	13	5	168.2	0	-	4	129	3334
46	Sunil Narine	KKR	WI	36	24	2	4	171.4	3	6.9	4	127	3629
47	Rishabh Pant	LSG	IND	104	68	13	1	122.4	0	-	5	123	8430
48	Krunal Pandya	RCB	IND	1	1	0	0	16.7	7	9.2	5	122	1810
49	Travis Head	SRH	AUS	120	46	17	4	151.9	0	-	5	122	4407
50	Naman Dhir	MI	IND	109	50	9	5	158	0	-	5	121	1666