Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji list the Most Valuable Players in the India- England ODI series.
Although India won the recent ODI series against England at Pune, the two most valuable players of the series were Englishmen: Ben Stokes topped the list with a MVPI of 292, followed by Jonny Bairstow (MVPI: 261).
India's top three performers were Rishabh Pant (243), Shardul Thakur (237) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (225).
Recall that the Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) collapses the player's batting, bowling and fielding performance into a single 'run equivalent'.
All-rounders like Ben Stokes have the advantage of contributing with both batting and bowling performances.
Stokes scored 135 runs at a strike rate of 132 and also captured 4 wickets.
Batsmen scoring a lot of runs at a high strike rate, and bowlers taking a lot of wickets at a low economy rate, are considered to be the most valuable.
Table 1 lists the Most Valuable Players in the 3-match ODI series.
It is interesting to note that India's two best batsmen over the past decade -- Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma -- do not figure in the top ten. This is unlikely to happen again.
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.
Most Valuable Players of the India-England series
| Rank | Player | Team | Runs | Top Score | 4s | 6s | Strike Rate | Wickets | Economy Rate | Games | MVPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Stokes | ENG | 135 | 99 | 8 | 11 | 132 | 4 | 6.1 | 3 | 292 |
| 2 | Jonny Bairstow | ENG | 219 | 124 | 17 | 14 | 120 | 0 | - | 3 | 261 |
| 3 | Rishabh Pant | IND | 155 | 78 | 8 | 11 | 152 | 0 | - | 2 | 243 |
| 4 | Shardul Thakur | IND | 30 | 30 | 1 | 3 | 143 | 7 | 6.7 | 3 | 237 |
| 5 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | IND | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 6 | 4.7 | 3 | 225 |
| 6 | Lokesh Rahul | IND | 177 | 108 | 11 | 6 | 101 | 0 | - | 3 | 194 |
| 7 | Sam Curran | ENG | 107 | 95 | 10 | 2 | 104 | 2 | 6.3 | 3 | 170 |
| 8 | Shikhar Dhawan | IND | 169 | 98 | 21 | 2 | 94.4 | 0 | - | 3 | 164 |
| 9 | Hardik Pandya | IND | 100 | 64 | 6 | 8 | 145 | 0 | 5.3 | 3 | 157 |
| 10 | Prasidh Krishna | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6.9 | 3 | 154 |
| 11 | Jason Roy | ENG | 115 | 55 | 17 | 2 | 124 | 0 | - | 3 | 152 |
| 12 | Mark Wood | ENG | 16 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 57.1 | 5 | 6.4 | 2 | 147 |
| 13 | Virat Kohli | IND | 129 | 66 | 10 | 1 | 86.6 | 0 | - | 3 | 124 |
| 14 | Liam Livingstone | ENG | 63 | 36 | 5 | 2 | 121 | 1 | 6.7 | 2 | 107 |
| 15 | Krunal Pandya | IND | 95 | 58 | 8 | 2 | 128 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 106 |
| 16 | Moeen Ali | ENG | 59 | 30 | 4 | 3 | 95.2 | 1 | 5.7 | 3 | 102 |
| 17 | Rohit Sharma | IND | 90 | 37 | 15 | 0 | 86.5 | 0 | - | 3 | 96 |
| 18 | Reece Topley | ENG | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 3 | 6.7 | 2 | 84 |
| 19 | Adil Rashid | ENG | 19 | 19 | 2 | 0 | 70.4 | 3 | 7.3 | 3 | 73 |
| 20 | Dawid Malan | ENG | 66 | 50 | 7 | 0 | 90.4 | 0 | - | 2 | 59 |
| 21 | Tom Curran | ENG | 11 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 68.8 | 2 | 7.3 | 2 | 40 |
| 22 | Jos Buttler | ENG | 17 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 68 | 0 | - | 3 | 29 |
| 23 | Eoin Morgan | ENG | 22 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 73.3 | 0 | - | 1 | 19 |
| 24 | T Natarajan | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 1 | 7.3 | 1 | 17 |
| 25 | Sam Billings | ENG | 18 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 81.8 | 0 | - | 1 | 14 |
| 26 | Shreyas Iyer | IND | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 66.7 | 0 | - | 1 | 3 |
| 27 | Kuldeep Yadav | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 8 | 2 | -33 |
Table 2, below, summarises the ODI performance of the Indian cricketers during the ongoing Covid-curtailed 2020-2021 season.
Hardik Pandya (424) has this season's highest MVPI even though he hasn't bowled too many overs.
Shardul Thakur (336) is second because he is the highest wicket-taker; he should continue to be high in the table because he is showing that he can score good runs at a very fair clip.
It must be worrisome that both Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal appear to have lost their wrist-spinning magic, and are at the bottom of the table.
Most Valuable ODI players in 2020-21 (6 matches so far)
| Rank | Player Name | Runs | 4's | 6's | Strike Rate | Wkts | Eco | Match | MVPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hardik Pandya | 310 | 21 | 14 | 123 | 1 | 5.5 | 6 | 424 |
| 2 | Shardul Thakur | 30 | 1 | 3 | 142.9 | 10 | 6.2 | 4 | 336 |
| 3 | Lokesh Rahul | 270 | 16 | 11 | 101.1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 328 |
| 4 | Virat Kohli | 302 | 24 | 4 | 90.1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 304 |
| 5 | Shikhar Dhawan | 289 | 38 | 2 | 91.7 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 283 |
| 6 | Rishabh Pant | 155 | 8 | 11 | 152 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 243 |
| 7 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 3 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 6 | 4.7 | 3 | 225 |
| 8 | Ravindra Jadeja | 115 | 6 | 6 | 117.3 | 1 | 6.2 | 3 | 167 |
| 9 | Prasidh Krishna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6.9 | 3 | 154 |
| 10 | Mohammed Shami | 14 | 1 | 1 | 100 | 4 | 6.9 | 2 | 121 |
| 11 | Krunal Pandya | 95 | 8 | 2 | 128.4 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 106 |
| 12 | Jasprit Bumrah | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6.6 | 3 | 97 |
| 13 | Rohit Sharma | 90 | 15 | 0 | 86.5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 96 |
| 14 | Shreyas Iyer | 65 | 8 | 0 | 95.6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 92 |
| 15 | T Natarajan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7.2 | 2 | 67 |
| 16 | Mayank Agarwal | 50 | 6 | 1 | 113.6 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 57 |
| 17 | Shubman Gill | 33 | 3 | 1 | 84.6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 27 |
| 18 | Navdeep Saini | 39 | 2 | 1 | 86.7 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 12 |
| 19 | Kuldeep Yadav | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7.2 | 3 | 5 |
| 20 | Yuzvendra Chahal | 4 | 0 | 0 | 66.7 | 1 | 8.4 | 2 | -14 |
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
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