The legendary Indian cricketer was the Man of the ODI series, but the Most Valuable Player title went to an unlikely Aussie, point out Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji.
Shaun Marsh was the Most Valuable Player of the Australia-India ODI series with a MVPI of 252.
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar wasn't too far behind with a MVPI of 245.
The Most Valuable Player Index 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.
The MVPI expresses a player's overall batting + bowling + fielding performance in terms of a 'run equivalent'.
It is a little surprising to see the Indian Captain Virat Kohli only 8th on the list. By his standards, he didn't do too well -- after all, he just got one century to add to his 38 ODI centuries so far!
Much more worrying (for Australia) must be their Captain Aaron Finch's performance. He is placed 24th (practically at the bottom) with a MVPI of 7; he scored just 28 runs in three innings with just one boundary!
India must worry about Shikhar Dhawan (placed 16th) who scored just 55 in three innings. Ambati Rayadu (placed 21st) also has a worrying performance deficit.
Most Valuable Players in the Australia-India series
| Rank | Player | Runs | Top Score | 4s | 6s | Strike Rate | Wickets | Economy Rate | Maidens | MVPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shaun Marsh | 224 | 131 | 18 | 3 | 90.7 | 0 | - | 3 | 252 |
| 2 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 29 | 29 | 4 | 0 | 126.1 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 245 |
| 3 | Rohit Sharma | 185 | 133 | 13 | 8 | 93.4 | 0 | - | 3 | 215 |
| 4 | Jhye Richardson | 18 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 62.1 | 6 | 3.7 | 3 | 200 |
| 5 | Peter Handscomb | 151 | 73 | 10 | 2 | 103.4 | 0 | - | 3 | 185 |
| 6 | M S Dhoni | 193 | 87 | 9 | 3 | 73.1 | 0 | - | 3 | 181 |
| 7 | Marcus Stoinis | 86 | 47 | 6 | 2 | 86.9 | 4 | 6.1 | 3 | 174 |
| 8 | Virat Kohli | 153 | 104 | 8 | 2 | 84.1 | 0 | - | 3 | 164 |
| 9 | Yuzvendra Chahal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 6 | 4.2 | 1 | 163 |
| 10 | Glenn Maxwell | 85 | 48 | 11 | 1 | 139.3 | 1 | 5.9 | 3 | 153 |
| 11 | Mohammed Shami | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 5 | 5.1 | 3 | 128 |
| 12 | Usman Khawaja | 114 | 59 | 11 | 0 | 73.5 | 0 | - | 3 | 109 |
| 13 | Ravindra Jadeja | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 61.5 | 2 | 5.2 | 3 | 80 |
| 14 | Jason Behrendorff | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 77 |
| 15 | Kedar Jadhav | 61 | 61 | 7 | 0 | 107 | 0 | 5.8 | 1 | 75 |
| 16 | Shikhar Dhawan | 55 | 32 | 5 | 0 | 73.3 | 0 | - | 3 | 63 |
| 17 | Dinesh Karthik | 37 | 25 | 2 | 0 | 105.7 | 0 | - | 3 | 50 |
| 18 | Alex Carey | 47 | 24 | 8 | 0 | 68.1 | 0 | - | 3 | 42 |
| 19 | Kuldeep Yadav | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 31 |
| 20 | Peter Siddle | 10 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 83.3 | 2 | 6.5 | 3 | 23 |
| 21 | Ambati Rayudu | 24 | 24 | 2 | 0 | 63.2 | 0 | 6.5 | 2 | 13 |
| 22 | Vijay Shankar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 3.8 | 1 | 12 |
| 23 | Nathan Lyon | 12 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 240 | 0 | 5.5 | 2 | 11 |
| 24 | Aaron Finch | 26 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 48.1 | 0 | - | 3 | 7 |
| 25 | Billy Stanlake | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.9 | 1 | -1 |
| 26 | Khaleel Ahmed | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 6.9 | 1 | -15 |
| 27 | Mohammed Siraj | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 7.6 | 1 | -26 |
*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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