Pakistan players top MVP rankings in Asia Cup

Sri Lanka won the just-concluded Asia Cup, but none of their players figure in Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji's most valuable player index. Check out why.

Although Pakistan lost the final of the Asia Cup, the three most valuable players (MVP) of the Cup were all Pakistani cricketers: Saeed Ajmal’s outstanding bowling, Umar Akmal’s authoritative batting and Mohammad Hafeez’s all-round display earn them the top spots.

And we aren’t even talking of Shahid Afridi, who made an impact.

- India's most valuable players in the 2013-14 ODI season

We have no doubt that if we had used a different index – such as Jaideep Varma’s Impact Index – Afridi would have been right on top!

Rather curiously, no Sri Lankan cricketer figures in the top five. This confirms that Sri Lanka won the Cup because of excellent team work, rather than flashy individual contributions.

For India, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Virat Kohli were the top contributors.

Actually India didn’t play badly; but they desperately missed that 'extra something' that Mahendra Singh Dhoni would have provided.

The table below compiles the list of the most valuable players of the Asia Cup.

The most valuable player index (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'.

Most valuable players in the Asia Cup (Feb 25 – Mar 8, 2014)

Rank	Player	Team	Runs	Str Rate	W	Eco	M	MVPI
1	Saeed Ajmal	PAK	11	183.3	11	4.1	5	358
2	Umar Akmal	PAK	253	110.5	0	-	5	350
3	Mohammad Hafeez	PAK	158	71.8	5	4.1	5	332
4	R Jadeja	IND	74	97.4	7	4	4	324
5	R Ashwin	IND	27	117.4	9	4.2	4	319
6	Kumar Sangakkara	SL	248	96.5	0	-	5	307
7	Lahiru Thirimanne	SL	279	79.9	0	-	5	282
8	Angelo Mathews	SL	196	87.1	1	3.7	5	264
9	Lasith Malinga	SL	0	-	11	5.4	4	260
10	Ahmed Shehzad	PAK	228	80	0	-	5	259
11	Chaturanga de Silva	SL	78	85.7	5	4.3	5	256
12	Ajantha Mendis	SL	5	250	9	4.8	3	237
13	Virat Kohli	IND	189	102.7	0	5.1	4	235
14	Samiullah Shenwari	AFG	151	83.4	3	5.1	4	229
15	Mushfiqur Rahim	BAN	195	100.5	0	-	4	228
16	Shahid Afridi	PAK	103	168.9	3	5.1	5	226
17	Anamul Haque	BAN	227	68.2	0	-	4	222
18	Mominul Haque	BAN	125	83.3	3	4.2	4	217
19	Mohammed Shami	IND	14	140	9	6.2	4	206
20	Mohammad Nabi	AFG	65	71.4	4	4.2	4	205
21	Fawad Alam	PAK	188	92.2	0	6	2	204
22	Thisara Perera	SL	51	69.9	5	4.9	5	180
23	S Dhawan	IND	192	77.1	0	-	4	177
24	Ziaur Rahman	BAN	71	147.9	2	4.2	4	174
25	Ajinkya Rahane	IND	174	77	0	-	4	165
26	Suranga Lakmal	SL	0	-	6	4.7	4	162
27	Shakib Al Hasan	BAN	64	133.3	1	4	2	158
28	Kusal Perera	SL	153	78.5	0	-	5	154
29	Mirwais AshrAFG	AFG	14	25	6	4.5	4	151
30	Amit Mishra	IND	1	100	3	2.5	2	145
31	Sachithra Senanayake	SL	19	100	4	4.7	4	138
32	Asghar Stanikzai	AFG	162	68.9	0	-	4	133
33	Misbah-ul-Haq	PAK	143	75.3	0	-	5	128
34	Rohit Sharma	IND	108	77.7	0	5.8	4	111
35	Mahela Jayawardene	SL	111	77.6	0	-	5	108
36	Umar Gul	PAK	29	96.7	5	6.2	5	106
37	Rubel Hossain	BAN	17	85	2	5.7	3	103
38	Sharjeel Khan	PAK	84	87.5	0	-	4	93
39	B Kumar	IND	0	-	3	4.7	4	90
40	Ashan Priyanjan	SL	37	66.1	2	3.7	2	86
41	Ambati Rayudu	IND	85	85	0	9	4	83
42	Noor Ali Zadran	AFG	96	69.1	0	-	3	81
43	Mahmudullah	BAN	30	73.2	2	5.9	2	76
44	Arafat Sunny	BAN	2	18.2	3	5.3	2	70
45	Shapoor Zadran	AFG	2	10	3	4.8	4	70
46	Dinesh Karthik	IND	50	64.1	0	-	4	68
47	Imrul Kayes	BAN	59	78.7	0	-	1	66
48	Nasir Hossain	BAN	72	62.6	0	4.7	4	61
49	Hamza Hotak	AFG	1	6.3	2	4	3	60
51	Naeem Islam	BAN	49	70	0	15	2	55
50	Mohammad Talha	PAK	0	0	4	7.2	3	55
52	Hamid Hassan	AFG	0	-	2	4.2	1	55
53	Al-Amin Hossain	BAN	0	0	2	5.5	2	53
54	Mohammad Shahzad	AFG	40	72.7	0	-	4	52
55	Sohaib Maqsood	PAK	70	63.6	0	7	4	51
56	Nawroz Mangal	AFG	68	57.1	0	5.7	4	50
57	Dinesh Chandimal (vc)	SL	45	73.8	0	-	3	44
58	Najibullah Zadran	AFG	38	41.8	0	3	4	44
59	Dawlat Zadran	AFG	2	7.7	3	6.5	3	34
60	Shamsur Rahman	BAN	46	64.8	0	-	3	33
61	Anwar Ali	PAK	21	58.3	0	5.8	1	27
62	Sohag Gazi	BAN	5	41.7	1	5.8	2	19
63	Bilawal Bhatti	PAK	18	138.5	0	6.8	1	18
64	Junaid Khan	PAK	2	100	1	5.7	4	18
65	Abdur Razzak	BAN	0	0	2	6.3	3	10
66	Mashrafe Mortaza	BAN	1	100	0	4.9	1	2
67	Abdur Rehman	PAK	8	100	0	-	1	1
68	Cheteshwar Pujara	IND	0	-	0	-	0	0
69	Ms Dhoni	IND	0	-	0	-	0	0
70	Stuart Binny	IND	0	0	0	5.5	1	0
71	Dhammika Prasad	SL	0	-	0	-	0	0
72	Tillakaratne Dilshan	SL	0	-	0	-	0	0
73	Nuwan Kulasekara	SL	0	-	0	-	0	0
74	Fazal Niazai	AFG	0	-	0	-	0	0
77	Karim Sadiq	AFG	12	33.3	0	4.5	1	-5
76	Varun Aaron	IND	0	-	1	9.4	1	-5
78	Rahmat Shah	AFG	9	39.1	0	10.5	1	-12
79	Shafiul Islam	BAN	0	-	0	9.8	1	-24

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.

Image: Saeed Ajmal