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Which Indian was among the top 12 Most Valuable Players in the tri-series?

Last updated on: February 09, 2015 11:15 IST

Moeen Ali, the England all-rounder, with a batting strike-rate of 82.1 and an economy rate of 4.2, was tops.

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji evaluate Australia, England and India's players in the the tri-series for Rediff.com

Image: Moeen Ali. Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

The Carlton Mid ODI Tri-Series was a disaster that the Indians would like to forget quickly. They won nothing and the only time they got some points was when it rained incessantly.

There isn't a single Indian player in the top dozen most valuable players (please see table below). Indeed to find Indian names one must scroll down to the bottom dozen of the table's list.

Moeen Ali (MVPI of 337) was the most valuable player of the Tri-Series with his opening partner Ian Bell (325) just below him; Moeen is increasingly looking like a bowling all-rounder, and among the best in the business right now.

Looking at the table it looks as though India has no wicket-taking bowlers, a solitary batsman who can score runs if fit, and no winners.

Something has to change if the defending World Cup champions want to avoid an early ignominious quarter-final departure.

The Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) 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.

MVPI must be seen as an indicator of a player's overall batting + bowling + fielding performance, expressed in terms of a 'run equivalent.'

We will regularly publish the MVP tables as the World Cup gets under way, and it would be interesting to speculate who might be this World Cup's most valuable player.

In 2011 it was Tillakaratne Dilshan, with Shahid Afridi and Yuvraj Singh just behind him.

In 2007 it was Matthew Hayden followed by Scott Styris and Sanath Jayasuriya.

Table: Most valuable players in the Carlton Mid ODI Tri-Series (January 16 to February 1, 2015)

	Player	Team	Runs	Four	Six	Strike Rate	W	Economy	M	MVPI
1	Moeen Ali	ENG	119	12	4	82.1	7	4.2	5	337
2	Ian Bell	ENG	247	27	1	103.3	0	-	5	325
3	Glenn Maxwell	AUS	152	20	1	94.4	5	6	5	316
4	Mitchell Starc	AUS	1	0	0	100	12	4.9	5	309
5	James Faulkner	AUS	100	11	4	125	6	5.4	5	274
6	Steven Finn	ENG	6	0	0	16.2	11	5.1	5	256
7	Steven Smith	AUS	226	19	2	92.6	0	-	5	254
8	James Anderson	ENG	5	1	0	250	7	3.6	4	247
9	David Warner	AUS	163	23	0	105.2	0	-	4	207
10	Jos Buttler	ENG	137	12	0	74.5	0	-	5	198
11	Brad Haddin	AUS	80	9	1	133.3	0	-	5	175
12	Chris Woakes	ENG	12	0	0	50	8	6.1	5	165
13	Stuart Binny	IND	51	4	2	76.1	4	4.5	3	164
14	Rohit Sharma	IND	138	9	4	99.3	0	-	1	160
15	James Taylor	ENG	147	8	0	67.1	0	-	5	157
16	Aaron Finch	AUS	143	11	2	79.4	0	6	5	156
17	Eoin Morgan	ENG	123	11	3	81.5	0	-	5	130
18	Stuart Broad	ENG	27	2	2	100	5	5.9	5	117
19	Joe Root	ENG	102	9	0	82.3	0	-	5	116
20	Ajinkya Rahane	IND	146	8	2	68.5	0	-	4	115
21	Mitchell Marsh	AUS	60	7	1	88.2	1	3.9	2	99
22	Mohammed Shami	IND	28	3	1	100	2	4.6	4	91
23	Mitchell Johnson	AUS	3	0	0	30	3	3.9	1	81
24	Shane Watson	AUS	57	7	1	96.6	0	4.7	2	74
25	Mohit Sharma	IND	7	1	0	116.7	2	3.6	1	73
26	Josh Hazlewood	AUS	0	0	0	-	2	3.4	2	68
27	Gurinder Sandhu	AUS	0	0	0	-	3	5.4	2	68
28	Axar Patel	IND	1	0	0	12.5	2	4.2	4	67
29	Shaun Marsh	AUS	45	6	0	93.8	0	-	1	50
30	Ambati Rayudu	IND	58	5	1	61.7	0	-	3	48
31	Ravi Bopara	ENG	57	2	0	57.6	0	8	5	48
32	M S Dhoni	IND	70	6	0	56.5	0	-	4	47
33	Xavier Doherty	AUS	0	0	0	-	1	3.7	2	47
34	Chris Jordan	ENG	17	1	0	81	1	5.5	1	39
35	Pat Cummins	AUS	0	0	0	-	2	5.8	3	37
36	Suresh Raina	IND	53	6	0	74.6	0	10.3	4	36
37	Umesh Yadav	IND	0	0	0	-	2	6.1	2	33
38	Ravichandran Ashwin	IND	14	0	0	70	1	6	1	32
39	Bhuvneshwar Kumar	IND	5	0	0	83.3	1	5.2	2	32
40	Shikhar Dhawan	IND	49	4	0	56.3	0	-	4	31
41	Moises Henriques	AUS	4	0	0	36.4	1	4.9	1	25
42	Virat Kohli	IND	24	0	0	46.2	0	-	4	10
43	Ishant Sharma	IND	0	0	0	-	0	-	1	0
44	George Bailey	AUS	17	1	0	32.1	0	-	4	0
45	Cameron White	AUS	0	0	0	0	0	-	1	-2
46	Ravindra Jadeja	IND	5	0	0	55.6	0	6.3	2	-5

Runs (scored). Strike rate. W: Wickets taken. Economy: 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.

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji, for Rediff.com in Bengaluru