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No surprise, Kohli, Most Valuable Player

Last updated on: September 14, 2017 11:50 IST

The ODI and T20 series against the Aussies begins on Sunday, September 17.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji check out how Team India fared on the Sri Lanka tour and find out which cricketers were truly valuable to the team.

Virat Kohli celebrates his 30th ODI in the 5th ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo, September 3, 2017. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

 

Virat Kohli being the most valuable player on the Sri Lanka ODI series (with an MVPI of 447) is hardly a surprise.

He's really that good, and he's in that sort of form.

But look who's just behind him? Jasprit Bumrah with an MVPI of 440!

What's especially notable is that Bumrah didn't score a single run (he wasn't required to); he's up there because of some exceptional bowling with 15 wickets at an economy rate below 4 runs per over.

Recall that the MVPI formula picks out batsmen who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate, bowlers who take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate, and fielders who take the most catches or participate in run outs.

The MVPI expresses a player's overall batting + bowling + fielding performance in terms of a 'run equivalent'.

 

The highest ranked Sri Lankan player is Akila Dananjaya (MVPI 231).

He nearly won the second ODI for Sri Lanka with an incredible bowling spell, but the old warrior M S Dhoni inspired Bhuvneshwar Kumar to bat with care and diligence to eventually lead India to a good victory.

Table 1 provides all the details.

Table 1: Most Valuable Players, India-Sri Lanka ODI series (August 20-September 3, 2017)

RankPlayerRunsTop Score4s6sStrike RateWicketsEconomyMatchesMVPI
1 Virat Kohli 330 131 37 3 111.9 0 6 5 447
2 Jasprit Bumrah 0 0 0 0 - 15 3.9 5 440
3 Rohit Sharma 302 124 33 8 97.1 0 - 5 355
4 Shikhar Dhawan 190 132 28 4 127.5 0 - 4 271
5 Akila Dananjaya 26 11 2 0 57.8 9 5.2 4 231
6 M S Dhoni 162 67 10 2 82.2 0 - 5 225
7 Axar Patel 6 6 0 0 66.7 6 3.9 4 218
8 Angelo Mathews 192 70 18 1 65.8 2 4.4 5 206
9 Milinda Siriwardana 144 58 10 4 102.1 1 5.2 4 190
10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar 53 53 4 1 66.3 5 4.9 4 186
11 Niroshan Dickwella 124 64 16 2 95.4 0 - 5 155
12 Yuzvendra Chahal 0 0 0 0 - 5 4.7 4 150
13 Kedar Jadhav 64 63 7 0 82.1 3 5.4 4 141
14 Lahiru Thirimanne 165 80 9 3 70.5 0 - 3 140
15 Hardik Pandya 19 19 1 1 90.5 4 5.5 4 111
16 Kuldeep Yadav 0 0 0 0 - 3 3.8 2 102
17 Manish Pandey 86 50 6 0 90.5 0 - 2 93
18 Upul Tharanga 70 48 11 0 109.4 0 - 3 92
19 Chamara Kapugedera 55 40 3 0 64.7 0 - 3 64
20 Lokesh Rahul 28 17 2 0 73.7 0 - 4 54
21 Wanindu Hasaranga 33 22 3 1 91.7 1 7.3 3 45
22 Danushka Gunathilaka 54 35 6 0 66.7 0 - 2 41
23 Vishwa Fernando 20 7 2 0 60.6 3 6.4 5 39
24 Lasith Malinga 11 8 0 1 68.8 3 6.2 5 36
25 Kusal Mendis 57 36 7 0 55.9 0 - 4 29
26 Shardul Thakur 0 0 0 0 - 1 5.7 2 26
27 Malinda Pushpakumara 11 8 0 1 42.3 1 5.5 2 25
28 Dilshan Munaweera 15 11 2 0 51.7 0 - 2 16
29 Dinesh Chandimal 36 36 4 0 50.7 0 - 1 13
30 Ajinkya Rahane 5 5 0 0 29.4 0 - 1 -4
31 Dushmantha Chameera 12 6 1 0 70.6 0 6.1 2 -4
32 Thisara Perera 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 1 -12
33 Lakshan Sandakan 5 5 0 0 62.5 0 11 1 -30

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.

Table 2, below, contains some interesting pointers.

Kohli is India's best batsman this season with 832 runs so far, with Rohit Sharma (606) and Shikhar Dhawan (689) easily being the second and third best batsmen respectively.

We then have Dhoni (383) scoring his bit when required and Ajinkya Rahane (341) riding his exceptional success in the West Indies.

No other batsman has scored -- or been required to score -- but Kedar Jadhav could just be trailing off. He needs a strong comeback at home.

The story of Indian bowlers is more reassuring, with Jasprit Bumrah (19), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (14) and Hardik Pandya (14) being the leading wicket-takers.

These numbers suggest that Pandya may be more a bowling all-rounder, but his strike rate of almost 150 (that too in ODIs!) does point to a truly explosive finisher.

The concern could be R Ashwin. He hasn't played enough (just 6/15 matches this season) and he hasn't taken enough wickets.

Is he being held back only for Tests? Is that wise?

Does anyone remember that he first came in essentially as a limited overs bowler?

Table 2 summarises the performance so far of India's ODI players in the 2017-2018 season.

It'll be interesting to see how these numbers change after playing Australia and New Zealand at home.

Table 2: Most Valuable Indian ODI players in the 2017-2018 season (15 matches so far)

RankPlayerRuns4s6sStrike RateWicketsEconomy RateMatchesMVPI
1 Virat Kohli 832 82 13 101.7 0 5.8 15 1,058
2 Shikhar Dhawan 689 91 10 106.3 0 - 14 863
3 Rohit Sharma 606 62 15 91.7 0 - 10 671
4 Hardik Pandya 148 6 12 146.5 14 5.3 14 571
5 Jasprit Bumrah 1 0 0 11.1 19 4.4 10 565
6 M S Dhoni 383 24 6 79.8 0 - 15 541
7 Bhuvneshwar Kumar 54 4 1 61.4 14 4.5 12 479
8 Kedar Jadhav 161 18 2 107.3 8 5.2 14 444
9 Kuldeep Yadav 2 0 0 33.3 11 4 7 348
10 Ajinkya Rahane 341 34 3 75.3 0 - 6 310
11 Umesh Yadav 0 0 0 0 10 5 7 252
12 Axar Patel 6 0 0 66.7 6 3.9 4 218
13 Ravindra Jadeja 26 1 0 70.3 4 5.2 7 187
14 Yuvraj Singh 162 18 2 89.5 0 5 8 178
15 Yuzvendra Chahal 0 0 0 - 5 4.7 4 150
16 Ravichandran Ashwin 1 0 0 33.3 5 5 6 123
17 Mohammed Shami 1 0 0 50 4 4.1 2 119
18 Manish Pandey 86 6 0 90.5 0 - 2 93
19 Lokesh Rahul 28 2 0 73.7 0 - 4 54
20 Dinesh Karthik 52 5 0 73.2 0 - 2 45
21 Shardul Thakur 0 0 0 - 1 5.7 2 26

IMAGE: Virat Kohli celebrates his 30th ODI in the 5th ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo, September 3, 2017. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji