Most Valuable Players of India-England ODI series

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji list the Most Valuable Players in the India- England ODI series.

IMAGE: Rishabh Pant celebrates his fifty during the third One Day International between India and England at the MCA stadium in Pune, March 28, 2021. Photograph: BCCI

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.

IMAGE: England's Ben Stokes celebrates his half century during the second ODI at the MCA stadium in Pune, March 26, 2021. Photograph: Surjeet Yadav/Getty Images

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.

IMAGE: Jonny Bairstow celebrates his century during the 2nd ODI. Photograph: Surjeet Yadav/Getty Images

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

IMAGE: Hardik Pandya hits out during the 2nd ODI. Photograph: Surjeet Yadav/Getty Images

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