What a comeback it has been for Ravindra Jadeja. The all-rounder stunned everyone with a superb showing with both bat and ball to play a vital role in India's 5-0 whitewash over England in the One-Day International series.
One way to assess how badly England were outplayed in the recently-concluded India-England five-match ODI series is to look at the list of the most valuable players (Table 1), based on the most valuable player index (MVPI): the top five names all belong to the Indian team!
The 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.
Table 1: Most valuable players in the India-England series (Oct 14-25, 2011)
Runs (scored) | Top score | 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.
Virat Kohli has been India's most valuable ODI player in the current 2011-12 season, with Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni not too far behind.
The face of India's ODI team is changing. Readers will recall that Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh frequently vied for the MVP position in previous years; but these players haven't played even once for India after winning the 2011 World Cup.
Table 2: India's most valuable players in the 2011-12 ODI season (15 matches so far)
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Runs (scored) | Sixes | Fours | Strike rate | Bat-pts: Batting points | W: Wickets taken | Eco: Economy rate | Bowl-pts: Bowling points | Field-pts: fielding points | M: Matches played | MVPI: Most valuable player index = sum of batting, bowling and fielding points | AvMVPI = MVPI/M | *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.
