India's ODI team is playing incredible cricket, with practically every player in peak form. But who are the players offering the greatest value to the team at the moment?

In One-Day Internationals, batsmen offer the best value if they score a lot of runs with good strike rates, bowlers if they take a lot of wickets at good (low) economy rates and fielders if they take the most catches or make the most run outs.

The most valuable player index (MVPI) collapses a player's all-round performance into a suitable 'run equivalent'.

Table 1, below, confirms that Virender Sehwag [Images] and Yuvraj Singh [Images] have so far been India's most valuable players this season.

Table 1: India's most valuable players in the 2008-09 ODI season (18 matches so far):

Rank	Player	Runs	Balls	Str Rate	Bat Pts	Bb	Rc	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Ct St	Run Outs	Field Pts	M	MVPI
1	V Sehwag	721	568	126.9	968.7	263	250	7	5.7	144.2	4	0	20	12	1133
2	Yuvraj Singh	685	643	106.5	834.2	372	311	9	5.0	224.0	2	0	10	17	1068
3	MS Dhoni [Images]	700	803	87.2	730.8	0	0	0	-	0.0	27	4.5	247.5	18	978
4	G Gambhir	679	704	96.4	771.3	0	0	0	-	0.0	7.0	1	60	17	831
5	Suresh Raina	627	664	94.4	700.7	18	22	0	7.3	-7.0	9	2	95	18	789
6	Zaheer Khan [Images]	19	73	26.0	-22.8	458	272	15	3.6	484.7	3	0.5	27.5	9	489
7	Munaf Patel [Images]	20	18	111.1	25.0	388	275	12	4.3	348.3	1	1	30	9	403
8	H Singh	25	54	46.3	5.0	370	278	12	4.5	330.3	2	1	35	8	370
9	Irfan Pathan [Images]	105	126	83.3	105.0	460	416	10	5.4	217.3	1	0	5	9	327
10	Rohit Sharma	289	412	70.1	234.7	83	42	0	3.0	27.2	3	1.5	52.5	17	314
11	P Kumar	16	25	64.0	11.2	495	417	11	5.1	270.5	3	0.5	27.5	10	309
12	RP Singh	8	19	42.1	0.2	420	413	12	5.9	237.0	2	2	60	9	297
13	Yusuf Pathan	96	89	107.9	117.8	286	276	6	5.8	112.3	4	0.5	32.5	11	263
14	Piyush Chawla [Images]	2	7	28.6	-1.8	322	295	11	5.5	248.3	1	0	5	6	252
15	Ishant Sharma	8	19	42.1	0.2	480	486	12	6.1	214.0	3	0	15	9	229
16	Pragyan Ojha	27	46	58.7	15.7	258	173	5	4.0	167.0	3	0	15	5	198
17	Virat Kohli	159	239	66.5	118.8	0	0	0	-	0.0	3	0.5	27.5	5	146
18	M Gony	0	0	-	0.0	94	76	2	4.9	52.3	0	0	0	2	52
19	R Uthappa	37	61	60.7	23.2	0	0	0	-	0.0	0	0	0	3	23
20	S Badrinath	39	87	44.8	5.5	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	3	16
21	S Tendulkar	11	21	52.4	4.5	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	1	15

Runs (scored) | Balls (faced) | Strike rate | Bat-pts: Batting points | Bb: Balls bowled | Rc: Runs conceded | W: Wickets taken | Eco: Economy rate | Bowl-pts: Bowling points | Ct/St: Catches taken / Stumpings | Run outs (participated) | Field-pts: fielding points | M: Matches played | Total (points) = 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.

Sehwag tops the list with a MVPI of 1133; this contribution is even more noteworthy because he has played in only 12 of the 18 ODI matches played so far this season. Yuvraj is second after his two electric centuries and a four-wicket haul.

Zaheer Khan is sixth because he has played in only nine ODI matches so far this season. But he should soon climb into the top five if he keeps taking wickets (15 so far) at such a remarkable economy rate (3.6 runs per over).

Sachin Tendulkar [Images] has played just one ODI match this season; but we would do well to remember that he was India's most valuable ODI player in the preceding 2007-08 season.

Yuvraj and Andrew Flintoff [Images] have been their country's most valuable players so far in the ongoing India-England ODI series. At this point of time, Yuvraj seems to be the favourite to bag the player of the series award.

Table 2: The most valuable players in the India-England ODI series (4 matches so far)

Rank	Player	Team	Runs	Balls	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	Bb	Rc	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Ct St	Run Outs	Field Pts	M	MVPI
1	Yuvraj Singh	IND	319	242	131.8	436.3	138	113	5	4.9	127.0	0	0	0	4	563
2	V Sehwag	IND	223	210	106.2	271.0	90	100	4	6.7	75.0	2	0	10	4	356
3	A Flintoff	ENG	114	114	100.0	133.0	198	167	4	5.1	98.0	0	0	0	4	231
4	Owais Shah	ENG	170	173	98.3	195.8	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	4	206
5	G Gambhir	IND	175	193	90.7	189.2	0	0	0	-	0.0	3	0	15	3	204
6	Stuart Broad [Images]	ENG	48	40	120.0	62.7	210	214	6	6.1	111.0	2	0	10	4	184
7	Zaheer Khan	IND	1	7	14.3	-3.8	180	128	6	4.3	172.0	3	0	15	4	183
8	Harbhajan	IND	8	10	80.0	7.7	192	165	6	5.2	145.0	1	0.5	17.5	4	170
9	K Pietersen	ENG	114	126	90.5	123.0	66	67	1	6.1	13.0	0	1	25	4	161
10	Munaf Patel	IND	0	1	0.0	-0.8	142	109	5	4.6	134.3	0	1	25	4	159
11	MS Dhoni	IND	92	114	80.7	89.0	0	0	0	-	0.0	7	1	60	4	149
12	Samit Patel	ENG	85	91	93.4	94.2	120	157	3	7.9	18.0	1	1	30	4	142
13	Yusuf Pathan	IND	68	48	141.7	96.0	52	83	3	9.6	35.3	0	0	0	4	131
14	Ravi Bopara [Images]	ENG	118	132	89.4	126.0	0	0	0	-	0.0	0	0	0	4	126
15	Ian Bell [Images]	ENG	84	100	84.0	84.7	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	4	95
16	Suresh Raina	IND	48	61	78.7	45.2	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	1	35	4	80
17	G Swann	ENG	10	9	111.1	12.5	72	68	3	5.7	67.0	0	0	0	2	80
18	Ishant Sharma	IND	0	0	-	0.0	84	101	4	7.2	69.0	1	0	5	2	74
19	P Collingwood	ENG	44	54	81.5	43.0	54	58	1	6.4	12.0	2	0	10	4	65
20	Rohit Sharma	IND	42	62	67.7	32.3	0	0	0	-	0.0	0	0.5	12.5	3	45
21	S Harmison	ENG	6	7	85.7	6.2	102	125	3	7.4	35.0	0	0	0	2	41
22	Matt Prior [Images]	ENG	47	86	54.7	22.3	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	4	32
23	S Tendulkar	IND	11	21	52.4	4.5	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	1	15

Runs (scored) | Balls (faced) | Strike rate | Bat-pts: Batting points | Bb: Balls bowled | Rc: Runs conceded | W: Wickets taken | Eco: Economy rate | Bowl-pts: Bowling points | Ct/St: Catches taken / Stumpings | Run outs (participated) | Field-pts: fielding points | M: Matches played | Total (points) = 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.

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji work for Cranes Software International [Get Quote] Limited, Bangalore.