Most valuable players in the Zimbabwe-India series

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji rate the players after the just-concluded ODI series.

Amit Mishra’s 18 wickets made him the most valuable player in the recently-concluded Zimbabwe-India series.

So overwhelming was India’s domination in the series, that Zimbabwe’s most valuable player, Elton Chigumbura, is only seventh in the combined list with a MVPI of just 175.

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 suggests that only Rohit Sharma performed below par, and Vinay Kumar didn’t really use his opportunity to make a possible comeback into India’s top playing eleven.

Table 1: Most valuable players in the Zimbabwe-India series (Jul 24 – Aug 3, 2013)

	Player	Team	Runs	Str Rate	W	Eco	M	MVPI
1	Amit Mishra	IND	9	128.6	18	4.4	5	496
2	Jaydev Unadkat	IND	0	--	8	3.5	5	286
3	Ravindra Jadeja	IND	63	63.6	5	3.5	5	284
4	Shikhar Dhawan	IND	209	95.9	0	-	4	251
5	Virat Kohli	IND	197	92.1	0	7	5	229
6	Mohammed Shami	IND	6	600.0	6	4.2	5	208
7	Elton Chigumbura	ZIM	159	78.3	1	5.2	5	175
8	Suresh Raina	IND	97	95.1	1	3.3	5	159
9	Dinesh Karthik	IND	87	80.6	0	-	5	142
10	Prosper Utseya	ZIM	71	57.3	3	4.7	4	130
11	Kyle Jarvis	ZIM	14	87.5	4	4.9	3	117
12	Mohit Sharma	IND	0	--	3	3.2	2	109
13	Hamilton Masakadza	ZIM	125	72.3	0	4.5	5	109
14	Tendai Chatara	ZIM	31	63.3	3	4.6	4	108
15	Sean Williams	ZIM	116	72.5	1	7.6	5	105
16	Vusi Sibanda	ZIM	118	59.3	0	-	5	98
17	Brian Vitori	ZIM	29	70.7	3	5.3	4	96
18	Sikandar Raza	ZIM	110	65.9	0	-	4	86
19	Vinay Kumar	IND	27	225.0	2	5.5	3	81
20	Rohit Sharma	IND	99	62.7	0	-	4	71
21	Ambati Rayudu	IND	101	62.0	0	-	4	66
22	Brendan Taylor	ZIM	35	42.2	0	-	5	46
23	Ajinkya Rahane	IND	50	75.8	0	-	1	45
24	Malcolm Waller	ZIM	47	40.5	1	4.2	5	36
25	Michael Chinouya	ZIM	6	75.0	1	4.5	2	35
26	Natsai M'shangwe	ZIM	16	114.3	0	4.3	1	24
27	Cheteshwar Pujara	IND	13	46.4	0	-	2	3
28	Timycen Maruma	ZIM	4	33.3	0	-	1	-2
29	Tinotenda Mutombodzi	ZIM	12	100.0	0	7.3	2	-16

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.

But Table 2, which shows India’s most valuable players in the 15 matches played so far in India’s 2013-14 season, contains bigger pointers: e.g., that Ravindra Jadeja, with 25 wickets and a MVPI exceeding 1000, has scaled an incredible ODI peak (that’s why he is also No 1 in the official ICC ODI player rankings).

This list also highlights how much India’s ODI team has changed in just two years after winning the World Cup. Usually such dramatic changes happen only after a complete rout or debacle. We are seeing an unbelievably curious metamorphosis.

Table 2: India’s most valuable players in the 2013-14 ODI season (15 matches so far)

	Player Name	Runs	6s	4s	Str Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI
1	Ravindra Jadeja	214	6	20	84.3	216.3	25	4	754.2	70	15	1041
2	Shikhar Dhawan	707	9	77	93.5	784	0	-	0	30	14	814
3	Virat Kohli	521	7	54	92.4	572	0	5.8	-10	50	15	612
4	Bhuvneshwar Kumar	12	1	1	57.1	6.5	16	3.7	486	25	9	518
5	Amit Mishra	9	0	1	128.6	12.2	18	4.4	478.5	5	5	496
6	Ravichandran Ashwin	45	0	4	83.3	45	14	4.7	371	45	10	461
7	Ishant Sharma	4	0	0	28.6	-3.7	18	5.7	396	22.5	10	415
8	Suresh Raina	237	3	19	93.3	262.3	2	4.6	61	67.5	15	391
9	Rohit Sharma	493	5	47	66.4	366.8	0	-	0	22.5	14	389
10	Dinesh Karthik	255	2	27	70.4	208.3	0	-	0	92.5	15	301
11	Jaydev Unadkat	0	0	0	-	0	8	3.5	261	25	5	286
12	Umesh Yadav	0	0	0	0	-5	11	5.5	240	30	9	265
13	MS Dhoni	99	2	9	84.6	100.5	0	4.3	3	100	7	204
14	Mohammed Shami	6	1	0	300	10.3	6	4.6	169	10	6	189
15	Mohit Sharma	0	0	0	-	0	3	3.2	104	5	2	109
16	Vinay Kumar	32	2	2	114.3	40.7	2	4.9	52	10	4	103
17	Murali Vijay	57	0	7	89.1	60.7	0	-	0	10	3	71
18	Ambati Rayudu	101	0	6	62	66.2	0	-	0	0	4	66
19	Ajinkya Rahane	50	1	4	75.8	45	0	-	0	0	1	45
20	Cheteshwar Pujara	13	0	2	46.4	2.7	0	-	0	0	2	3

Runs (scored) ' Sixes ' Fours ' Strike rate ' Bat-pts: Batting points ' W: Wickets taken ' Eco: Economy rate ' Bowl-pts: Bowling points ' Field-pts: fielding points ' 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: Amit Mishra

Photograph: Reuters