The dust may have settled on the 11th season of the Indian Premier League, but the tournament remains fertile ground for analysis. We know who scored the most runs and who took the most wickets, but is there a better way of determining who performed the best? Who lived up to their billing in the auction?
The three scatter charts below offer some insight into this. They section players into:
- High return (low price, high value)
- Par-high performers (high price, high value)
- Poor return (high price, low value)
- Below par (low price, low value)
Kane Williamson's return on investment was the highest among batsmen. He was bought for a relatively modest ₹3 crore and produced the second highest batting value (1478). Jos Buttler (1193, ₹4.4 cr) and Ambati Rayudu (1023, ₹2.2 cr) were high quality buys, too
Rishabh Pant, who was retained by DD for ₹15 crore, had the highest batting value (1497). M.S. Dhoni (1339, ₹15 cr) and K.L. RahuL (1449, ₹11 cr) are other notable players in quadrant 2
Rohit Sharma (246) and Manish Pandey (221), who were picked up for ₹15 cr and ₹11 cr, had the worst return on investment figures among non-replacement batsmen this season
Click here to explore the full interactive for batsmen
Among bowlers, Rashid Khan had the highest value (681) followed by Andrew Tye (667.6). Both are in quadrant 2 because of their prices (₹9 cr and ₹7.2 cr). Siddarth Kaul (575.1, ₹3.8 cr), Umesh (567.3, ₹4.2 cr) and Bumrah (541.3, ₹7 cr) also justified their price tag
Trent Boult was the pick of the bowlers in quadrant 1. He generated the 7th highest bowling value (462.4) at a relatively modest ₹2.2 crore. Other value buys were Mayank Markande (406.4, ₹20 lakh) and Ngidi (358.2, ₹50 lakh)
Chris Morris (56.4) and his replacement* Junior Dala (-8.3) had the worst return on investment. Tom Curran (128.4, ₹9.4 cr) — the replacement for Mitchell Starc — and Karn Sharma (98.6, ₹5 cr) didn't offer enough
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By a mile, Shane Watson was the pick of the all-rounders with a combined value of 1,037. He also appears in quadrant 1, as he was picked up at a relatively inexpensive ₹4 crore. Shakib Al Hasan (566, ₹2 cr) and Vijay Shankar (443, ₹3.2 cr) were the others who returned good value for money
Sunil Narine (904, ₹212.5 cr), Hardik Pandya (736, ₹11 cr) and Andre Russell (736, ₹8.5 cr) were high-priced players who delivered
Axar Patel (109, ₹12.5 cr), Glenn Maxwell (231, ₹9 cr) had the worst return on investment figures among all-rounders
Click here to explore the full interactive for bowlers
*replacement players treated as having the same price as player replaced
For the mathematically inclined: Batting value = ((Batsman's average / tournament batting average) * Batsman's runs) + (Batsman's strike rate - tournament strike rate) * balls faced Bowling value = (Tournament batting average * Bowler's wickets) + (Tournament economy - Bowler's economy)* Bowler's overs