Virat Kohli says he doesn't want any tags attached to his name and performances. We'll respect his request -- we'll only attach numbers!
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji list the Most Valuable Players in the South Africa-India series.
IMAGE: Spin Twins Kuldeep Yadav, left, and Yuzvendra Chahal played a leading hand in India's resounding ODI series win in South Africa. Photograph: BCCI.
Virat Kohli says he doesn't want any tags attached to his name and performances. We'll respect his request -- we'll only attach numbers!
The numbers are breathtaking.
Kohli's series tally of 558 is a world record, and with his higher-than-par strike rate of 100, his total contribution to the team (measured by the Most Valuable Player Index or MVPI) is an equivalent of 679 'runs'.
And we aren't even factoring his contributions as captain!
The Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) 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.
MVPI expresses a player's overall batting + bowling + fielding performance in terms of a 'run equivalent'.
India didn't just win 5 out of the 6 ODI matches; they won them big!
That's why the top seven players in the MVPI table are all Indians.
The top ranking South African, Lungi Ngidi, is placed 8th and his MVPI is just 179 -- which is 500 'runs' less than Kohli.
Not surprisingly, India's wrist spinning twins Kuldeep Yadav and Yujvendra Chahal (we quite like the name 'KulCha') are second and third on the table with MVPIs of 445 and 404, although they were practically required to score no real runs.
Table 1 lists the Most Valuable Players of the series.
Table 1: Most Valuable Players in the South Africa-India ODI series
| Rank | Player | Team | Runs | Top Score | 4s | 6s | Strike Rate | Wickets | Economy Rate | Matches | MVPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virat Kohli | INDIA | 558 | 160 | 54 | 6 | 100 | 0 | - | 6 | 679 |
| 2 | Kuldeep Yadav | INDIA | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 17 | 4.6 | 6 | 445 |
| 3 | Yujvendra Chahal | INDIA | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 16 | 5 | 6 | 404 |
| 4 | Shikhar Dhawan | INDIA | 323 | 109 | 47 | 2 | 104 | 0 | - | 6 | 393 |
| 5 | Jasprit Bumrah | INDIA | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 8 | 4 | 6 | 248 |
| 6 | Hardik Pandya | INDIA | 26 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 74 | 4 | 4.9 | 6 | 182 |
| 7 | Rohit Sharma | INDIA | 170 | 115 | 19 | 6 | 83 | 0 | - | 6 | 179 |
| 8 | Lungi Ngidi | SA | 10 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 111 | 8 | 6.2 | 4 | 179 |
| 9 | Heinrich Klaasen | SA | 110 | 43 | 11 | 3 | 91 | 0 | - | 4 | 167 |
| 10 | Andile Phehlukwayo | SA | 87 | 34 | 4 | 6 | 96 | 3 | 5.7 | 5 | 160 |
| 11 | Aiden Markram | SA | 127 | 32 | 13 | 3 | 80 | 0 | 10 | 6 | 152 |
| 12 | Faf du Plessis | SA | 120 | 120 | 11 | 2 | 107 | 0 | - | 1 | 147 |
| 13 | Jean-Paul Duminy | SA | 99 | 51 | 7 | 0 | 69 | 2 | 6.3 | 5 | 141 |
| 14 | Hashim Amla | SA | 154 | 71 | 16 | 0 | 76 | 0 | - | 6 | 140 |
| 15 | Ajinkya Rahane | INDIA | 140 | 79 | 9 | 2 | 77 | 0 | - | 6 | 133 |
| 16 | Kagiso Rabada | SA | 17 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 57 | 5 | 5.6 | 5 | 125 |
| 17 | Chris Morris | SA | 69 | 37 | 6 | 2 | 97 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 112 |
| 18 | M S Dhoni | INDIA | 69 | 42 | 5 | 1 | 81 | 0 | - | 6 | 110 |
| 19 | David Miller | SA | 107 | 39 | 8 | 3 | 81 | 0 | - | 5 | 109 |
| 20 | Shardul Thakur | INDIA | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 4 | 5.9 | 1 | 97 |
| 21 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | INDIA | 40 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 87 | 2 | 6.1 | 5 | 83 |
| 22 | A B de Villiers | SA | 62 | 30 | 5 | 2 | 105 | 0 | - | 3 | 80 |
| 23 | Morne Morkel | SA | 22 | 20 | 0 | 2 | 85 | 2 | 5.4 | 5 | 74 |
| 24 | Khaya Zondo | SA | 96 | 54 | 5 | 2 | 61 | 0 | - | 3 | 66 |
| 25 | Shreyas Iyer | INDIA | 48 | 30 | 4 | 0 | 83 | 0 | - | 3 | 58 |
| 26 | Quinton de Kock | SA | 54 | 34 | 6 | 0 | 64 | 0 | - | 2 | 42 |
| 27 | Imran Tahir | SA | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 48 | 1 | 5.5 | 4 | 16 |
| 28 | Manish Pandey | INDIA | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | - | 0 | 5 |
| 29 | Kedar Jadhav | INDIA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 0 | 5 | 3 | -1 |
| 30 | Farhaan Behardien | SA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 | - | 1 | -2 |
| 31 | Tabraiz Shamsi | SA | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.1 | 2 | -3 |
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.
If we look at the entire 2017-2018 ODI season, Kohli is still colossal with a MVPI of 2237.
The table also suggests that India's top nine players in the playing eleven easily select themselves with MVPIs of 950 or more.
