Malinga, Pollard, Dhoni, Watson: who is the IPL's all-time MVP?
Can you pit allrounders against specialist batsmen and bowlers? The debate rages on
ESPNcricinfo staff
17-Jun-2020
The Slinga: bona fide IPL legend or one who stands on the shoulders of giants? • BCCI
In the third instalment of Rabbit Holes, three IPL geeks make a case for picking an all-time MVP for the league. Or not
Deivarayan Muthu, sub-editor: Hello fellas. In an ideal world, it would have been Kings XI v Sunrisers Hyderabad this evening, and we would have been approaching the playoffs. Instead, we're looking back at the IPLs past. Who is your MVP? Bombs away.
Gaurav Sundararaman (aka G-Stats), senior stats analyst: MS Dhoni, obviously! End of conversation.
Muthu: Thala, indeed. Ready to exit the conversation. Are we done?
Matt Roller, assistant editor: Shortest piece we've ever published?
Sundararaman: It's also one year since Slinga Malinga destroyed CSK's hopes.
I was joking about MSD. Being a hardcore CSK fan. I was speaking from the heart, but now I have put on my analyst hat.
Muthu: Good to have some company, G-Stats.
Sundararaman: MVP is a pretty big deal. You can't just select someone based on fandom - or whom I like - so I have gone all nerdy to come up with a method to this whole madness.
Roller: You've already mentioned two contenders, G-Stats. I was thinking of various different criteria that our MVP should meet and one of them is winning trophies - Malinga and Kieron Pollard are two of four guys to win four or more finals, along with Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma (the only one with five).
Muthu: Good point, Matt, and on that front, Mali and Polly have always stepped up in big finals.
Sundararaman: That is definitely one criterion, but we are talking about Most Valuable Player and titles cannot define individual brilliance. This is what I have (unfurls scroll): Longevity, consistency, performance under pressure, impact in key matches, multi-dimensionality. What sort of team is he playing in? Dependency on him? Accolades: Man-of-the-Match and trophy wins.
Muthu: Makes sense. My top priority is consistency, followed by the ability to handle pressure - because it's such a fickle format, it doesn't allow one to be consistent.
Sundararaman: Exactly. It's very hard to be consistent in this format and easy to get found out with technology, etc. But have you guys decided who your MVP is, or do you have a few names in mind? I know mine!
Roller: I found it so difficult to narrow it down to one. I can throw a whole load of names at you, but I keep second-guessing. I don't think there is a single player that fulfills every criterion I want them to.
Muthu: I've had a few prominent names in mind, but can't nail down just one, because they bring varied skill-sets. Dhoni, Mali, Sunil Narine, Pollard are sitting at the top of the (unranked) list for me. Oh, and Andre Russell.
Roller: My top five were David Warner, Narine, Pollard, Dhoni and Malinga. I'll add a couple of names as honourable mentions in Harbhajan Singh and Suresh Raina - especially for longevity, consistency and impact in knockout games.
Sundararaman: None of you have mentioned my guy yet.
Muthu: No Virat Kohli, sorry.
Sundararaman: Well, Kohli has been amazing, but somehow I never see the India Kohli and the RCB Kohli as the same. He plays with slightly less intensity for RCB and that is understandable. Maybe that reflects in his performances. So all of us agree, no Chris Gayle and no Kohli then?
Muthu: Absolutely agree, but I'd give extra points to Pollard, Russell and to MS for the tough job of dealing with the old ball.
Sundararaman: How can you guys not consider Shane Watson! Sorry, I can't continue this conversation without him. This is the IPL's MVP. Never forget the early years. In IPL fantasy games, Shane Watson was always everyone's captain! (takes deep, calming breaths). Here's fun fact No. 1: I have put a 500-run qualification just to satisfy all of you, and so that your contenders even make the table. Five hundred runs in 12 seasons is what the Tamil actor Rajnikanth will call a "jujube".
Muthu: Which also reminds me of sportswriter Vithushan Ehantharajah's Watto appreciation tweet. He was crazy good for Rajasthan Royals and nearly won back-to-back titles for CSK.
Roller: Nice. I couldn't believe how high he was on the all-time wickets list - maybe there's a bit of recency bias creeping in because we don't see him bowl much anymore. But he's 17th, with an economy rate below eight, and has bowled his fair share of "tough" overs too. Watson's record with the pressure on is mad.
Sundararaman: Glad you guys are warming up. [Ed: They had no choice, let's be honest.]
Roller: He gets such a rough time in England because of the lbw rubbish. Averages 40-plus in the Ashes and one of the great all-time white-ball allrounders and yet people over here think he's a joke!
Sundararaman: In knockout matches, he was amazing. Do you remember this game? Delhi were dominant in this IPL, and he killed it in the semi-final - scored 52 off 29 balls and took three top-order wickets for ten runs. He won two Player-of-the-Tournament awards in 2008 and 2013, and his worst IPL performance was in 2016 and 2017, when he was with RCB, and we all know what happens to players who get trapped in that failure vortex.
Roller: Village run-out of [Mohammad] Asif at the end of that vid. Glory days of Pakistan players in the IPL. Am I allowed to say that? But hold up. We need to wait a minute on the Watson love-in. (I don't think he's ever had this much affection from the media at once.) If we're looking at consistency, longevity, performances in big games, then there's someone who beats him on importance to his team: I present to you, Lasith Malinga.
Sundararaman: Malinga is a great shout, but he was actually Mumbai Indians' bowling mentor in 2018. He was out of the reckoning after some really poor seasons. He just bowled that one good ball in last year's final to make us believe he is still awesome. I think over the last four-five years, MI have been more reliant on Jasprit Bumrah than Malinga.
Roller: Obviously he's faded a bit, but that last ball in 2019 adds to his legend. And there are some unbelievable seasons: if you remember, he bowls half his overs at the death.
Muthu: I think Mali has been brilliant in finals, especially. He also broke CSK's top order - that inswinging yorker to Hussey in the 2013 final. He got Dhoni in the 2015 final. In 2017 he still bowled a super-tight spell in the middle. And that killer yorker in 2019. And he does a top job at the death. You overpitch a yorker, it's a full toss; you underpitch it, it's a half-volley. And the bats these days...
Roller: There's a great stat in this Jarrod Kimber piece from 2017 - at the time, Mali's full toss went for 7.18 runs per over with an average of 18.5. His full toss! He's still one of the all-time greats when he doesn't even land it.
Sundararaman: But do you think that his impact was greater than Pollard's or Watto's or even Narine's for that matter?
Muthu: In comparison to Pollard and Watto - those two have another skill too, which creates greater impact, but makes it so hard to nail down just one player. But if you take bowling alone, you have got to give it to Malinga.
Roller: There's the hidden impact too, of teams having to attack other bowlers and accelerate earlier because they know they'll get 15 off Malinga's last two overs if they're lucky. If you had taken him out of that MI attack between 2009 and 2015, they would have been a completely different team.
Anyway, I'm getting distracted watching Pollard's catches. Can we talk about him for a bit too?
Sundararaman: Yeah, what a catch...
Roller: This is another favourite.
Muthu: Gayle and Warner are cool, but dealing with the old ball is a different business altogether. So, Pollard over the other two for me. And in all those finals, he has been excellent. That 2013 innings tops it.
Roller: He's also had to reinvent himself to a certain extent. Remember the 2010 final when MI kept moving him down the order because they didn't want him to face spin? Nowadays he is almost as good at playing spin as pace. Last year Pollard was 90 runs off 58 balls against spin with two dismissals. And 49 off 35 against legspin specifically, with one dismissal.
Muthu: True, these days everyone matches him up with spin and R Ashwin largely bowls carrom balls to him, but Pollard finds a way to get away.
Sundararaman: I think he makes a strong case for MVP as well - on his sheer impact in the field and with the bat. His bowling is a huge let-down, though. He has some good performances with the ball in the CPL, but not so much in the IPL.
Roller: Did you guys watch the Mumbai Indians documentary on Netflix? Obviously there's a certain amount of PR etc, but I think that showed how important Pollard is as a presence too - the intangible stuff about his influence and leadership. Would be so easy as a senior player to throw the toys out of the pram after getting dropped, but he just got on with it.
Sundararaman: We have not even started discussing the Universe Boss!
Roller: Haha, shall we do him next?
Sundararaman: Gayle's a superb player but he somehow hardly turned up during the important games. The one game they needed him to fire in was the 2011 final and he failed.
Muthu: Growing up, I loved the antics of DJ Bravo. Super fun for the TV audience.
Roller: I loved all that stuff growing up too: Pollard putting the tape over his mouth after being reprimanded following an argument with Gayle.
Sundararaman: (Laughs) And the fight with Mitchell Starc. If we are looking at an off-field MVP, we can give the trophy to the Universe Boss.
Roller: Bravo is worth a mention, for sure, but I don't think there can be a case for him ahead of Malinga, for example. And I agree on Gayle - obviously an unbelievable batsman and probably the GOAT in all T20, but IPL specifically? Needs some knockout performances for that. Even the season he got MVP, he made zero off three balls in the final.
Muthu: AB de Villiers, for that matter, didn't quite turn up in the big games, like Pollard, Watto and Mali did.
Sundararaman: I think we have nailed it down to Pollard, Watto and Mali now. Sorry Dhoni, if we had to pick an MVC (Most Valuable Captain), we wouldn't even be having this discussion.
Roller: Actually, can I make the case for Narine quickly?
Muthu: Yes, please. Is there any other spinner who can bowl in the powerplay, middle and death? (Leaving out Rashid Khan since he hasn't been around long enough to win the MVP title.)
Sundararaman: Narine 2012 was wow! Kolkata Knight Riders won because of him, even though he got tonked in both the 2012 and 2014 finals. Narine made every KKR match a 16-over game. No one used to even attack him.
Muthu: Absolutely. KKR have had this thing for mystery spinners, but Narine is a class apart. I barely remember anyone lining up Narine, apart from Hardik Pandya. Unhittable lengths, usually.
Sundararaman: Thala is yet to score a boundary off Narine, by the way.
Roller: In 2012, when he had only played 16 games, KKR spotted him and were happy to pay big money even past their circuit-breaker price. Straight into the team, MVP in his first year - 24 wickets at an ER of 5.5. And since then, I don't think anyone has come close, in terms of economy rate. Plus, since 2017 his batting has been so valuable for them!
Sundararaman: Yeah, his batting was a key reason why he is valued so high. Killed matches in the Powerplay with both bat and ball.
Roller: Sadly, though, knockouts are going to count against him: four wickets in the eight knockout games he's played just isn't going to cut it, if we're being this ruthless on Gayle and AB, for example. Best spinner in IPL history chucked onto the scrapheap along with those two.
Sundararaman: Also, what about David Warner? My favourite batsmen in the IPL. MVB, for sure. This is the greatest Warner innings. If you have not seen it, please watch. What a guy! Remarkable consistency and can switch gears.
Roller: Warner since he joined Sunrisers: one IPL win (as captain), three orange caps, average 55(!), strikes at 147, and faces more than 30 balls per innings. Shows how reliant they have been on him
Muthu: And he takes the bulk of the pressure. SRH batting = top three. Warner is also among the few top-order batsmen who are as fluent against the old ball.
Sundararaman: Also, there are very, very few players who score more than 400 runs every season. Warner is one of them. He has no major weakness, can play spin and pace well, can hit sixes, can bat through.
Roller: This is an aside and probably doesn't show much, but I'm interested to know what you guys think. Among the guys with 100-plus appearances, Warner has a win-loss ratio of 0.850 - won 57, lost 67, 35th on the list!
Sundararaman: He played for Delhi. What do you expect?
Muthu: Incredibly consistent batsman, but his overall impact pales in comparison to Pollard and Watson. And I'd put Malinga over Warner too.
Sundararaman: Is it even right to compare a player who has just one or two skills to someone who has multiple? Cricket has this unique problem.
Muthu: I'd mentioned the same previously. It's so difficult to nail down just one player.
Roller: Oh, also, we have to justify not mentioning Rohit, or his fans will go crazy - in 17 knockout games, he's made 229 runs at a strike rate of 103.61 with one fifty.
Sundararaman: Let's rank the three that are left. For me, Watto is No. 1 (three skills) Pollard is No. 2 (two skills) and Mali is No. 3 (one skill).
Roller: 1 Pollard, 2 Malinga, 3 Watson.
Muthu: For me, 1 Pollard, 2 Watto, 3 Malinga. Again, so very difficult to compare bowlers to allrounders.
Sundararaman: So Malinga is not No. 1 anywhere. It is now between Pollard and Watson.
Roller: We both picked Pollard at No. 1, Gaurav! We'll both vote for him again, no doubt. Also, can't find Watson's name on this list - of most title wins.
Sundararaman: That is a team statistic! In that case, you've got to pick Rohit as MVP. MI v CSK here also.
Muthu: Having said that, Pollard's contributions in finals have been so very crucial. And on the fielding front, he would gulp down Watson.
Roller: We can leave it open-ended to an extent, right?
Sundararaman: Yeah, I think that is best.
Roller: And let our readers vote Dhoni or Kohli for No. 1, no doubt... (stares directly at camera)
Sundararaman: Pollard and Watson... Super Over it is.
Sundararaman: MVPs are hard to pick, and ever harder in the IPL. That we have narrowed it down to two guys is an achievement.
Muthu: Mouth-watering. Jimmy Neesham to call it. (Sorry, Neesh.)
Sundararaman: Watson won a Super Over on boundary count once, by the way.
Muthu: Still feeling hard done by about Malinga, but yes, can't quite match up a gun bowler to two gun allrounders.
Roller: Gaurav is just auditioning to be the next guest on Watson's lockdown podcast.
Sundararaman: Before I end, I have a quiz question for both of you. Who is the only overseas cricketer to score a century and take a hat-trick in the history of the IPL? Not in the same match, but overall.
Roller: (rolls eyes) Shane Watson?
Sundararaman: Congrats, Matt. Thanks guys! Signing off.
Read the previous Rabbit Holes pieces here