Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present the Most Valuable Player Index of the just-concluded three-match series between India and Zimbabwe.
This must be the first time!
Stuart Binny emerged as the most valuable player (MVP) of the Zimbabwe-India ODI series -- that just ended -- with his all-round performance of 120 runs at a strike rate of 120 and six wickets at an economy rate of 5.6.
His MVPI was 296 ‘runs’.
The most valuable player index (MVPI; see Table 1) formula picks out batsmen who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate, bowlers who take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate, and fielders who take the most catches or participate in run-outs.
It expresses a player’s overall batting + bowling + fielding performance in terms of a ‘run equivalent’.
Table 1: Most valuable players in the Zimbabwe-India series (July 10-14, 2015)
| Rank | Player | Team | Runs | 4s | 6s | Str Rate | W | Eco | M | MVPI |
| 1 | Stuart Binny | IND | 120 | 11 | 3 | 120 | 6 | 5.6 | 3 | 296 |
| 2 | Chamu Chibhabha | ZIM | 157 | 16 | 0 | 71 | 4 | 4.7 | 3 | 238 |
| 3 | Ambati Rayudu | IND | 165 | 15 | 1 | 90.2 | 0 | - | 2 | 178 |
| 4 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 5 | 3.1 | 3 | 175 |
| 5 | Ajinkya Rahane | IND | 112 | 13 | 0 | 72.7 | 0 | - | 3 | 171 |
| 6 | Kedar Jadhav | IND | 126 | 14 | 1 | 112 | 0 | - | 3 | 163 |
| 7 | Harbhajan Singh | IND | 5 | 0 | 0 | 125 | 4 | 3.7 | 3 | 157 |
| 8 | Axar Patel | IND | 3 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 5 | 4.5 | 3 | 155 |
| 9 | Elton Chigumbura | ZIM | 123 | 12 | 1 | 102 | 0 | - | 3 | 150 |
| 10 | Sikandar Raza | ZIM | 68 | 7 | 1 | 105 | 1 | 6.3 | 3 | 147 |
| 11 | Neville Madziva | ZIM | 3 | 0 | 0 | 33.3 | 6 | 5.7 | 2 | 136 |
| 12 | Murali Vijay | IND | 86 | 3 | 2 | 68.8 | 1 | 6.2 | 3 | 91 |
| 13 | Donald Tiripano | ZIM | 20 | 3 | 0 | 74.1 | 3 | 5.3 | 3 | 85 |
| 14 | Richmond Mutumbami | ZIM | 61 | 7 | 0 | 75.3 | 0 | - | 3 | 75 |
| 15 | Manish Pandey | IND | 71 | 4 | 1 | 82.6 | 0 | - | 1 | 70 |
| 16 | Robin Uthappa | IND | 44 | 4 | 0 | 75.9 | 0 | - | 3 | 60 |
| 17 | Hamilton Masakadza | ZIM | 46 | 6 | 0 | 46.5 | 1 | 4.1 | 3 | 53 |
| 18 | Mohit Sharma | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 2 | 4.7 | 1 | 52 |
| 19 | Prosper Utseya | ZIM | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4.1 | 1 | 42 |
| 20 | Dhawal Kulkarni | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 2 | 5.5 | 2 | 41 |
| 21 | Brian Vitori | ZIM | 8 | 1 | 0 | 88.9 | 2 | 6.5 | 2 | 39 |
| 22 | Graeme Cremer | ZIM | 54 | 4 | 0 | 68.4 | 0 | 6.1 | 3 | 21 |
| 23 | Regis Chakabva | ZIM | 27 | 3 | 0 | 62.8 | 0 | - | 1 | 18 |
| 24 | Malcolm Waller | ZIM | 5 | 0 | 0 | 62.5 | 0 | - | 1 | 13 |
| 25 | Manoj Tiwary | IND | 34 | 0 | 1 | 46.6 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 11 |
| 26 | Vusi Sibanda | ZIM | 22 | 2 | 1 | 45.8 | 0 | - | 2 | 9 |
| 27 | Sean Williams | ZIM | 20 | 1 | 0 | 51.3 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 8 |
| 28 | Tinashe Panyangara | ZIM | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 5.7 | 1 | -6 |
*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.
Binny is also India’s most successful ODI player of the 2015-2016 season with a MVPI of 335, with Ambati Rayadu (258) at second place.
These are still early days, but it must be a surprise that Virat Kohli (destined to become an all-time great ODI player) is so low on the India players’ list. It would be fair to say that India’s season is really yet to kick off strongly with so much team and captain shuffling going on right now. Table 2 provides the details.
Table 2: Most valuable India players in the 2015-16 season (6 matches so far)
| Rank | Player Name | Runs | 4s | 6s | Str Rate | W | Eco | M | MVPI |
| 1 | Stuart Binny | 137 | 13 | 3 | 123 | 7 | 5.8 | 4 | 335 |
| 2 | Ambati Rayudu | 209 | 18 | 1 | 88.9 | 1 | 2.5 | 4 | 258 |
| 3 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 28 | 2 | 1 | 90.3 | 7 | 3.9 | 5 | 246 |
| 4 | Suresh Raina | 112 | 7 | 4 | 96.6 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 228 |
| 5 | Akshar Patel | 13 | 0 | 1 | 118 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 213 |
| 6 | Ravichandran Ashwin | 4 | 0 | 0 | 36.4 | 6 | 3.9 | 3 | 186 |
| 7 | Shikhar Dhawan | 158 | 20 | 0 | 92.4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 179 |
| 8 | Ajinkya Rahane | 121 | 14 | 0 | 67.6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 168 |
| 9 | Kedar Jadhav | 126 | 14 | 1 | 112 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 163 |
| 10 | Harbhajan Singh | 5 | 0 | 0 | 125 | 4 | 3.7 | 3 | 157 |
| 11 | Ms Dhoni | 121 | 9 | 1 | 76.1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 132 |
| 12 | Rohit Sharma | 92 | 6 | 2 | 92.9 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 129 |
| 13 | Dhawal Kulkarni | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 5 | 5.3 | 4 | 122 |
| 14 | Murali Vijay | 86 | 3 | 2 | 68.8 | 1 | 6.2 | 3 | 91 |
| 15 | Ravindra Jadeja | 51 | 3 | 0 | 75 | 1 | 5.1 | 2 | 79 |
| 16 | Manish Pandey | 71 | 4 | 1 | 82.6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 70 |
| 17 | Robin Uthappa | 44 | 4 | 0 | 75.9 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 60 |
| 18 | Mohit Sharma | 11 | 2 | 0 | 57.9 | 3 | 7.4 | 2 | 59 |
| 19 | Virat Kohli | 49 | 4 | 1 | 74.2 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 46 |
| 20 | Umesh Yadav | 2 | 0 | 0 | 18.2 | 2 | 7.6 | 2 | 14 |
| 21 | Manoj Tiwary | 34 | 0 | 1 | 46.6 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 11 |
Runs (scored) ' No of 4s ' No of 6s ' 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.
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