Jadeja is MVP for England ODIs

What a comeback it has been for Ravindra Jadeja [ Images ]. The all-rounder stunned everyone with a superb showing with both bat and ball to play a vital role in India's [ Images ] 5-0 whitewash over England [ Images ] in the One-Day International series.

One way to assess how badly England were outplayed in the recently-concluded India-England five-match ODI series is to look at the list of the most valuable players (Table 1), based on the most valuable player index (MVPI): the top five names all belong to the Indian team!

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.

Table 1: Most valuable players in the India-England series (Oct 14-25, 2011)

Runs (scored) | Top score | 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.

Virat Kohli [ Images ] has been India's most valuable ODI player in the current 2011-12 season, with Suresh Raina [ Images ] and Mahendra Singh Dhoni [ Images ] not too far behind.

The face of India's ODI team is changing. Readers will recall that Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ], Virender Sehwag [ Images ] and Yuvraj Singh [ Images ] frequently vied for the MVP position in previous years; but these players haven't played even once for India after winning the 2011 World Cup.

Table 2: India's most valuable players in the 2011-12 ODI season (15 matches so far)

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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 | AvMVPI = MVPI/M | *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.