Virat is No 1. Rohit is no 2, but guess who are Nos 3, 4, 5!
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji identify the most valuable Indian players in the 2017-2018 ODI season.
IMAGE: Virat Kohli (131 runs off 96 balls) and Rohit Sharma (104 off 88) guided India to 375/5, the highest total posted by a visiting team in an ODI in Sri Lanka. Colombo, August 31, 2017. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters
Rohit Sharma (MVPI: 1523) is just behind Virat Kohli (1553) as India's Most Valuable ODI Player of the ongoing 2017-2018 season.
Hardik Pandya (1204) is 3rd, more for his wickets (26 at an economy rate of 5.5) than for his runs (442 at a strike rate of 119).
Shikhar Dhawan is 4th (1173) after his mountain of runs.
Jasprit Bumrah (988) is 5th after his haul of 34 wickets at an economy rate of just 4.7.
Let us see how this team performs in South Africa. It should hopefully be a more even contest.
Table 2: Most Valuable Indian ODI Players in the 2017-2018 season (26 matches so far)
| Rank | Player name | Runs | 4s | 6s | Strike Rate | Wickets | Eco | Matches | MVPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virat Kohli | 1275 | 118 | 17 | 98.1 | 0 | 5.8 | 23 | 1553 |
| 2 | Rohit Sharma | 1293 | 116 | 46 | 99.5 | 0 | - | 21 | 1523 |
| 3 | Hardik Pandya | 442 | 26 | 26 | 118.5 | 26 | 5.5 | 25 | 1204 |
| 4 | Shikhar Dhawan | 948 | 122 | 14 | 102.8 | 0 | - | 20 | 1173 |
| 5 | Jasprit Bumrah | 11 | 2 | 0 | 36.7 | 34 | 4.7 | 20 | 988 |
| 6 | M S Dhoni | 623 | 48 | 12 | 81.3 | 0 | - | 26 | 883 |
| 7 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 132 | 12 | 3 | 77.2 | 27 | 4.9 | 22 | 868 |
| 8 | Kedar Jadhav | 329 | 35 | 5 | 95.6 | 10 | 5.2 | 22 | 682 |
| 9 | Kuldeep Yadav | 21 | 4 | 0 | 63.6 | 22 | 4.9 | 14 | 593 |
| 10 | Ajinkya Rahane | 585 | 63 | 4 | 78.2 | 0 | - | 11 | 567 |
| 11 | Yuzvendra Chahal | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9.1 | 21 | 5 | 14 | 545 |
| 12 | Umesh Yadav | 2 | 0 | 0 | 66.7 | 14 | 5.4 | 8 | 333 |
| 13 | Axar Patel | 11 | 0 | 0 | 73.3 | 10 | 4.6 | 8 | 315 |
| 14 | Manish Pandey | 171 | 17 | 1 | 88.6 | 0 | - | 10 | 201 |
| 15 | Shreyas Iyer | 162 | 18 | 3 | 101.3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 199 |
| 16 | Ravindra Jadeja | 26 | 1 | 0 | 70.3 | 4 | 5.2 | 7 | 187 |
| 17 | Yuvraj Singh | 162 | 18 | 2 | 89.5 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 178 |
| 18 | Dinesh Karthik | 183 | 16 | 0 | 69.8 | 0 | - | 8 | 168 |
| 19 | Ravichandran Ashwin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 33.3 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 123 |
| 20 | Mohammed Shami | 7 | 1 | 0 | 87.5 | 4 | 4.8 | 3 | 114 |
| 21 | Lokesh Rahul | 28 | 2 | 0 | 73.7 | 0 | - | 4 | 54 |
| 22 | Shardul Thakur | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 1 | 5.7 | 2 | 26 |
| 23 | Washington Sundar | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 1 | 6.5 | 1 | 15 |
Team ' Runs (scored) ' Top score ' No of 4s ' No of 6s ' 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.
