Virat Kohli, who recently became the fastest batsman in ODIs to score 9,000 runs, is the Most Valuable Player of the ODI series against New Zealand.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji explain why the Indian skipper is tops.
Virat Kohli once again finished as the most valuable player in the One-Day International series against New Zealand.
With two centuries in three matches, this is hardly a surprise.
The India captain is in the form of his life. During the third ODI in Kanpur, Kohli became the sixth Indian and the fastest batsman overall in ODIs to score 9,000 runs.
Earlier in the series, he surpassed Australian great Ricky Ponting in the list of most ODI hundreds with his 31st ton before scoring another series century in the series decider.
Kohli (MVPI: 314) is followed by Tom Latham (242), Rohit Sharma (202) and Jasprit Bumrah (172) who bowled an absolutely magical last over in the Kanpur ODI.
It was a close series and one reason why New Zealand didn't reach the winning post first was the low MVPI score of two of its best batsmen: Kane Williamson (73) and Martin Guptill (57).
The most valuable player has the highest Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI).
The MVPI 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.
MVPI expresses a player's overall batting + bowling + fielding performance in terms of a 'run equivalent'.
Table 1: Most valuable players in the India vs New Zealand ODI series
| Rank | Player | Runs | Top Score | 4s | 6s | Strike Rate | Wickets | Economy | Matches | MVPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virat Kohli | 263 | 121 | 21 | 4 | 101.2 | 0 | - | 3 | 314 |
| 2 | Tom Latham | 206 | 103 | 17 | 2 | 95.4 | 0 | - | 3 | 242 |
| 3 | Rohit Sharma | 174 | 147 | 19 | 4 | 99.4 | 0 | - | 3 | 202 |
| 4 | Jasprit Bumrah | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 6 | 4.9 | 3 | 172 |
| 5 | Ross Taylor | 155 | 95 | 13 | 0 | 86.1 | 0 | - | 3 | 165 |
| 6 | Mitchell Santner | 38 | 29 | 2 | 2 | 88.4 | 4 | 4.6 | 3 | 158 |
| 7 | Tim Southee | 29 | 25 | 2 | 1 | 126.1 | 6 | 6.9 | 3 | 145 |
| 8 | Colin Munro | 113 | 75 | 11 | 5 | 99.1 | 0 | 5.5 | 3 | 141 |
| 9 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 26 | 26 | 2 | 2 | 173.3 | 5 | 6.4 | 3 | 122 |
| 10 | Yujvendra Chahal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 4 | 4.8 | 3 | 111 |
| 11 | Dinesh Karthik | 105 | 64 | 8 | 0 | 73.9 | 0 | - | 3 | 107 |
| 12 | Henry Nicholls | 83 | 42 | 9 | 1 | 95.4 | 0 | - | 3 | 99 |
| 13 | M S Dhoni | 68 | 25 | 8 | 0 | 85 | 0 | - | 3 | 97 |
| 14 | Hardik Pandya | 54 | 30 | 4 | 2 | 101.9 | 2 | 6.1 | 3 | 93 |
| 15 | Shikhar Dhawan | 91 | 68 | 9 | 2 | 78.4 | 0 | - | 3 | 90 |
| 16 | Trent Boult | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 4 | 5.7 | 3 | 87 |
| 17 | Kane Williamson | 73 | 64 | 8 | 0 | 68.9 | 0 | - | 3 | 73 |
| 18 | Adam Milne | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5.4 | 3 | 67 |
| 19 | Martin Guptill | 53 | 32 | 8 | 0 | 74.6 | 0 | - | 3 | 57 |
| 20 | Colin de Grandhomme | 49 | 41 | 5 | 1 | 96.1 | 1 | 6.5 | 3 | 52 |
| 21 | Kedar Jadhav | 30 | 18 | 2 | 1 | 85.7 | 0 | 5.3 | 3 | 36 |
| 22 | Axar Patel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 1 | 5.5 | 2 | 16 |
| 23 | Kuldeep Yadav | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 1 | 6.4 | 1 | 11 |
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.
Kohli is also this season's most valuable Indian player with an aggregated MVPI of 1553 (over the 23 matches played this season).
Rohit Sharma, who is batting almost as well as Kohli, and hit twice as many sixes, is second (1229).
He could have overtaken Kohli if he hadn't missed five matches because of injury.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya (1082) is in third position. He has scored only 424 runs (at a blazing strike rate of almost 120), but also taken 22 wickets at a reasonable economy rate of 5.6.
The table contains other pointers. Arguably the most glaring is that Ravichandran Ashwin played only six matches this season in which he has picked up five wickets, while Ravindra Jadeja played seven matches for a haul of four wickets.
Table 2: Most valuable Indian ODI players in the 2017-18 season (23 matches so far)
| Rank | Player name | Runs | 4s | 6s | Strike Rate | Wickets | Economy | Matches | MVPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virat Kohli | 1,275 | 118 | 17 | 98.1 | 0 | 5.8 | 23 | 1553 |
| 2 | Rohit Sharma | 1,076 | 103 | 33 | 96.1 | 0 | - | 18 | 1229 |
| 3 | Hardik Pandya | 424 | 23 | 26 | 118.4 | 22 | 5.6 | 22 | 1082 |
| 4 | Shikhar Dhawan | 780 | 100 | 12 | 102.1 | 0 | - | 17 | 953 |
| 5 | Jasprit Bumrah | 11 | 2 | 0 | 73.3 | 30 | 4.7 | 17 | 889 |
| 6 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 132 | 12 | 3 | 79.5 | 24 | 4.9 | 19 | 792 |
| 7 | M S Dhoni | 551 | 38 | 9 | 81.8 | 0 | - | 23 | 785 |
| 8 | Kedar Jadhav | 329 | 35 | 5 | 95.6 | 10 | 5.2 | 22 | 682 |
| 9 | Ajinkya Rahane | 585 | 63 | 4 | 78.2 | 0 | - | 11 | 567 |
| 10 | Kuldeep Yadav | 2 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 19 | 4.9 | 12 | 493 |
| 11 | Yuzvendra Chahal | 1 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 15 | 4.9 | 11 | 404 |
| 12 | Umesh Yadav | 2 | 0 | 0 | 66.7 | 14 | 5.4 | 8 | 333 |
| 13 | Axar Patel | 11 | 0 | 0 | 73.3 | 10 | 4.6 | 8 | 315 |
| 14 | Manish Pandey | 169 | 17 | 1 | 94.9 | 0 | - | 7 | 210 |
| 15 | Ravindra Jadeja | 26 | 1 | 0 | 70.3 | 4 | 5.2 | 7 | 187 |
| 16 | Yuvraj Singh | 162 | 18 | 2 | 89.5 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 178 |
| 17 | Dinesh Karthik | 157 | 13 | 0 | 73.7 | 0 | - | 5 | 152 |
| 18 | Ravichandran Ashwin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 33.3 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 123 |
| 19 | Mohammed Shami | 7 | 1 | 0 | 87.5 | 4 | 4.8 | 3 | 114 |
| 20 | Lokesh Rahul | 28 | 2 | 0 | 73.7 | 0 | - | 4 | 54 |
| 21 | Shardul Thakur | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 1 | 5.7 | 2 | 26 |
