Shikhar Dhawan is MVP of India-WI series

With a strike rate of 115, Shikhar Dhawan is the MVP from the India-West Indies series according to Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji

Just when it seemed as though Shikhar Dhawan was falling off from his incredible batting ‘high’, he returned to top form with a splendid ODI century to help India clinch the ODI series against West Indies.

With a series aggregate of 159 runs, at a strike rate of over 115, Dhawan emerged as the series’ most valuable player with a most valuable player index (MVPI) of 278.

The MVPI formula picks out batsmen who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate and bowlers who take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate, and expresses a player’s overall batting + bowling + fielding performance in terms of a ‘run equivalent’. 

Table 1 lists the MVPI of all the players who played in the ODI series. It confirms that it was a pretty close series with 6 out of the top 10 players on the list being West Indians. But 4 out of the top 5 were Indians.

Notice too that IPL players tended to perform better in the series. This shouldn’t be such a surprise because the matches were played in India and the dividing line between ODI and T20 cricket is getting blurred.

The table shows that Suresh Raina continues to struggle with his batting, and if he hadn’t got those 3 wickets his MVPI would have been dismal. And it now appears that Ravindra Jadeja makes it to the final eleven only because of his bowling. Where have his big runs vanished?

Table 1: Most valuable players in the India-West Indies series ( Nov 21-27, 2013)

Runs (scored) ' Strike rate ' W: Wickets taken ' Eco: Economy rate ' ' M: Matches played ' MVPI: Most valuable player index = sum of batting, bowling and fielding points '*Run outs are counted as 1 (wicket) for a direct hit, and 0.5 (wicket) if the fielder is an equal participant in a run out dismissal.

Table 2, which shows India’s most valuable players in the 24 matches played so far in India’s 2013-14 season, tells a bigger story. Just three batsmen, each having scored more than 1000 runs in double quick time, are bearing the entire batting burden. India don’t even require too many runs from M S Dhoni, even though he was till recently the world’s best ODI batsman and holds the 6th best ODI batsman’s place even now!

Most of the players who helped India win the 2011 World Cup have faded away! And yet India continues to lead the ODI rankings by a wide margin. There’s a story embedded within that needs to be told.

Table 2: India’s most valuable players in the 2013-14 ODI season (24 matches played; 1 abandoned)

Runs (scored) ' Strike rate ' W: Wickets taken ' Eco: Economy rate ' M: Matches played ' MVPI: Most valuable player index = sum of batting, bowling and fielding points ' ' *Run outs are counted as 1 (wicket) for a direct hit, and 0.5 (wicket) if the fielder is an equal participant in a run out dismissal.

Image: Shikhar Dhawan

Photograph: BCCI