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Williamson is MVP of India-NZ ODIs; Shami is top Indian

February 04, 2014 10:01 IST

Only Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Mohammed Shami justified their selection, while all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja did just enough to hang on. The others, notably Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma, did practically nothing in the ODI series in New Zealand, which India lost 0-4.

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji list the most valuable players of the just-concluded series, and also analyses how Indian players fared in the 2013-14 season.

New Zealand provided further evidence after South Africa that India simply finds it hard to win away from home, when conditions get even moderately unfriendly.

But what was the reason for World champions India's meek surrender against the Kiwis? Did India give up too easily? Are our bowlers really so bad? Were the players afraid of getting injured before the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League later this year? Did the New Zealand players over-perform because they were mindful of the forthcoming IPL auction?

A devout India cricket fan might accuse us of casting unwarranted aspersions, but there seems to be no doubt that the IPL has changed the mindset of the cricketers. We will, however, be delighted to be proved wrong.

Table 1 compiles the list of the most valuable players of the New Zealand-India ODI series. 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'.

The table shows that the team carrying more 'passengers' lost. For India, only Virat Kohli, Mahendra Siingh Dhoni and Mohammed Shami justified their selection, while all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja did just enough to hang on. The others, notably Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma, did practically nothing.

For New Zealand, only Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder under-performed; but they still batted aggressively enough to help the team's cause.

Table 1: Most valuable players in the New Zealand - India series (Jan 19-31, 2014):

Rank

Player

Team

Runs

Str Rate

W

Eco

M

MVPI

1

Kane Williamson

NZ

361

85.5

4

6.8

5

516

2

Corey Anderson

NZ

120

193.5

10

6.6

3

482

3

Mohammed Shami

IND

24

88.9

11

7.2

5

417

4

Virat Kohli

IND

291

102.5

1

5.1

5

384

5

Ross Taylor

NZ

343

88.2

0

-

5

372

6

Ravindra Jadeja

IND

145

125

4

5.2

5

347

7

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

IND

272

92.2

0

-

5

336

8

Tim Southee

NZ

30

115.4

8

5.8

4

305

9

Martin Guptill

NZ

214

76.7

0

-

5

216

10

Luke Ronchi 

NZ

97

183

0

-

5

212

11

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

IND

41

107.9

4

5.4

5

174

12

Mitchell McClenaghan

NZ

3

50

5

6.2

4

170

13

Ravichandran Ashwin

IND

94

127

1

5.2

5

168

14

Varun Aaron

IND

2

50

4

7

3

148

15

Brendon McCullum 

NZ

102

122.9

0

-

5

135

16

Suresh Raina

IND

84

101.2

1

5.5

3

128

17

Rohit Sharma

IND

145

71.8

0

-

5

127

18

Jesse Ryder

NZ

94

113.3

0

-

5

124

19

James Neesham

NZ

34

178.9

1

7.6

2

123

20

Hamish Bennett

NZ

3

42.9

3

5.7

2

98

21

Ishant Sharma

IND

6

54.5

2

7.9

2

96

22

Matt Henry

NZ

0

-

4

3.8

1

93

23

Shikhar Dhawan

IND

81

66.9

0

-

4

84

24

Kyle Mills

NZ

2

100

4

4.4

3

84

25

Ajinkya Rahane

IND

51

58.6

0

-

5

80

26

Nathan McCullum

NZ

4

36.4

2

4.6

5

49

27

Ambati Rayudu

IND

57

58.2

0

7.7

2

40

28

Adam Milne

NZ

0

-

1

5.3

1

28

29

Stuart Binny

IND

0

-

0

8

1

3

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.

Williamson is MVP of India-NZ ODIs; Shami is top Indian

February 04, 2014 10:01 IST
Suresh Raina

Table 2, which shows India's most valuable players in the 32 matches played so far in India's 2013-14 season, throws up some puzzles.

Why is Raina persisted with even though he contributes a run equivalent of less than 30 (877/30 = 29.33) per match.

Why is leg-spinner Amit Mishra being denied opportunities even when he contributed an average of  over 88 'runs' in the six matches he played this season? Why is there so little 'churn' in the team with nine out of 11 players playing most of the season's matches?

We need answers to some of these questions if we have any hope of retaining the World Cup crown next year.
 
Table 2: India's most valuable players in the 2013-14 ODI season (32 matches played; 1 abandoned)

Rank

Player name

Runs

Four

Six

Strike Rate

Bat Point

W

Eco

Bowl Point

Field Point

M

MVPI

1

R Jadeja

439

42

14

90.1

472.2

43

5.4

1159

137.5

32

1920

2

Virat Kohli

1391

147

24

101.6

1641.2

2

6.1

0

87.5

32

1890

3

S Dhawan

1243

156

10

95

1396

0

5.7

0

102.5

30

1524

4

Rohit Sharma

1254

116

38

79.4

1191.3

0

4.8

6

47.5

31

1273

5

Mohd Shami

38

1

2

80.9

36.8

37

4.9

746.8

35

20

1233

6

MS Dhoni

787

69

23

99.9

917.3

0

6

3

230

24

1219

7

R Ashwin

225

25

3

98.7

260

31

5.9

730.2

65

27

1188

8

B Kumar

82

8

1

75.2

73.2

25

4.5

636

82.5

23

978

9

Suresh Raina

528

48

4

89.8

566

6

5.4

152

120

30

877

10

Ishant Sharma

11

0

0

36.7

-3

26

5.2

491

27.5

17

746

11

Amit Mishra

9

1

0

128.6

12.2

18

7.7

450.5

10

6

529

12

Vinay Kumar

43

3

2

89.6

46

10

5.4

124.5

22.5

9

464

13

Umesh Yadav

1

0

0

9.1

-7.2

12

5.5

238

47.5

11

332

14

Dinesh Karthik

255

27

2

70.4

208.3

0

4.2

0

92.5

15

301

15

J Unadkat

0

0

0

0

0

8

0

251

25

7

296

16

Yuvraj Singh

118

12

3

65.9

86.8

2

4

19

42.5

11

210

17

Mohit Sharma

0

0

0

0

-4.2

4

5.0

69.5

5

5

190

18

Varun Aaron

2

0

0

50

0.7

4

5.3

52.8

0

3

148

19

Ajinkya Rahane

109

9

1

64.1

76.3

0

3.8

0

50

7

127

20

Ambati Rayudu

158

11

2

60.5

98.5

0

3.6

-8

0

6

106

21

Murali Vijay

57

7

0

89.1

60.7

0

5.3

0

10

3

71

22

Stuart Binny

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

-3

0

1

3

22

C Pujara

13

2

0

46.4

2.7

0

2.8

0

0

2

3

Runs (scored) ' Fours ' Sixes ' Strike rate ' Batting points ' W: Wickets taken ' Eco: Economy rate ' Bowling points ' Fielding points ' 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.