With the seven-match India-England one-day series tragically curtailed after the fifth match, the series officially has no player of the series.

But if we look at the most valuable player index (MVPI), published by Rediff.com right through every ODI cricket season, it is easy to guess that Yuvraj Singh [Images] (with a series MVPI of 585) would have been picked for the award.

The MVPI is calculated based on the assumption that, in ODI cricket, 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 MVPI collapses the player's all-round performance into a single 'run equivalent'.

Virender Sehwag [Images] (477), as Table 1 shows, was the other outstanding player of ODI series that India claimed 5-0. England's [Images] top three players: Owais Shah (290), Kevin Pitersen (276) and Andrew Flintoff [Images] (231) were way behind.

Table 1: Most valuable players in the India-England ODI series

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	325	251	129.5	440.8	198	151	5	4.6	139.0	1	0	5	5	585
2	V Sehwag	IND	314	283	111.0	392.2	90	100	4	6.7	75.0	2	0	10	5	477
3	Owais Shah	ENG	236	230	102.6	280.3	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	5	290
4	K Pietersen	ENG	225	254	88.6	238.3	66	67	1	6.1	13.0	0	1	25	5	276
5	A Flintoff	ENG	114	117	97.4	130.5	252	210	4	5.0	100.0	0	0	0	5	231
6	Zaheer Khan [Images]	IND	1	7	14.3	-3.8	240	188	8	4.7	212.0	4	0	20	5	228
7	G Gambhir	IND	175	193	90.7	189.2	0	0	0	-	0.0	3	0	15	4	204
89	H Singh	IND	8	10	80.0	7.7	252	212	7	5.0	173.0	1	0.5	17.5	5	198
10	MS Dhoni [Images]	IND	142	175	81.1	138.2	0	0	0	-	0.0	7	1	60	5	198
11	Stuart Broad [Images]	ENG	48	40	120.0	62.7	262	268	7	6.1	125.3	2	0	10	5	198
12	Ravi Bopara [Images]	ENG	142	165	86.1	146.5	36	42	1	7.0	13.0	1	0	5	5	165
13	Munaf Patel [Images]	IND	0	1	0.0	-0.8	142	109	5	4.6	134.3	0	1	25	4	159
14	Suresh Raina	IND	102	114	89.5	109.0	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	1	35	5	144
15	Samit Patel	ENG	85	91	93.4	94.2	138	180	3	7.8	10.0	1	1	30	5	134
16	Yusuf Pathan	IND	68	48	141.7	96.0	52	83	3	9.6	35.3	0	0	0	5	131
17	I Sharma	IND	0	0	-	0.0	144	155	5	6.5	90.0	1	0	5	3	95
18	Ian Bell [Images]	ENG	84	100	84.0	84.7	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	4	95
19	Collingwood	ENG	84	118	71.2	69.7	54	58	1	6.4	12.0	2	0	10	5	92
20	G Swann	ENG	10	9	111.1	12.5	114	124	4	6.5	71.0	0	0	0	3	84
21	S Tendulkar	IND	61	78	78.2	57.0	0	0	0	-	0.0	4	0	20	2	77
22	S Harmison	ENG	6	7	85.7	6.2	162	175	4	6.5	60.0	0	0	0	3	66
23	R Sharma	IND	50	72	69.4	40.0	0	0	0	-	0.0	0	0.5	12.5	4	53
24	Matt Prior [Images]	ENG	47	86	54.7	22.3	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	5	32
25	Alastair Cook [Images]	ENG	11	15	73.3	9.5	0	0	0	-	0.0	0	0	0	1	10

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.

Virender Sehwag (MVPI of 1254) however continues to be India's most valuable player if we consider the 2008-09 ODI season as a whole (see Table 2 below).

Looking at Table 2, we can draw some more inferences: Zaheer Khan (534 from only 10 matches) is India's best bowler both in Tests and ODIs, and Munaf Patel is a better pick for ODI matches than Ishant Sharma.

Sachin Tendulkar [Images], who was India's MVPI in the last ODI season, but has played only 2 of the 19 matches this season, should climb up the rankings as the season advances if he remains fit.

Table 2: India's most valuable players in the 2008-09 ODI season (19 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	812	641	126.7	1089.8	263	250	7	5.7	144.2	4	0	20	13	1254
2	Yuvraj Singh	691	652	106.0	838.7	432	349	9	4.8	236.0	3	0	15	18	1090
3	MS Dhoni	750	864	86.8	780.0	0	0	0	-	0.0	27	4.5	247.5	19	1028
4	Suresh Raina	681	717	95.0	764.5	18	22	0	7.3	-7.0	9	2	95	19	853
5	G Gambhir	679	704	96.4	771.3	0	0	0	-	0.0	7.0	1	60	17	831
6	Zaheer Khan	19	73	26.0	-22.8	518	332	17	3.8	524.7	4	0.5	32.5	10	534
7	Munaf Patel	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	430	325	13	4.5	358.3	2	1	35	9	398
9	Rohit Sharma	297	422	70.4	242.3	83	42	0	3.0	27.2	3	1.5	52.5	18	322
10	Irfan Pathan [Images]	105	126	83.3	105.0	520	473	10	5.5	210.3	1	0	5	10	320
11	Praveen 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	12	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	540	540	13	6.0	235.0	3	0	15	10	250
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	S Tendulkar	61	78	78.2	57.0	0	0	0	-	0.0	4	0	20	2	77
19	M Gony	0	0	-	0.0	94	76	2	4.9	52.3	0	0	0	2	52
20	Robin Uthappa	37	61	60.7	23.2	0	0	0	-	0.0	0	0	0	3	23
21	S Badrinath	39	87	44.8	5.5	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	3	16

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.