Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji list India's best ODI players during the 2019-2020 season.
A World Cup year tends to dominate discussion on ODI cricket, and bilateral series are usually quickly forgotten.
However, we are about to start what promises to be an enthralling ODI series at home against Australia.
Before the series begins, let us take a look at India's best ODI players during the ongoing 2019-2020 season.
Not surprisingly, after his stupendous World Cup performance, Rohit Sharma is India's most valuable ODI player this season with a MVPI of 1092.
Skipper Virat Kohli (MVPI 946) isn't too far behind.
The bigger surprise is how far the #3 player (Mohammed Shami, 545) is behind the top two.
Recall that the most valuable player index (MVPI) collapses the player's batting, bowling and fielding performance into a single 'run equivalent'.
Table 1 lists the most valuable Indian players in the 2019-2020 season.
Table 1: Most Valuable ODI Players in 2019-2020 (15 matches so far)
| Rank | Player | Runs | 4s | 6s | Strike_Rate | Wickets | Economy Rate | Matches | MVPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rohit Sharma | 934 | 101 | 16 | 97.7 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 1092 |
| 2 | Virat Kohli | 766 | 76 | 3 | 98.1 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 946 |
| 3 | Mohammed Shami | 5 | 0 | 0 | 41.7 | 23 | 5.6 | 10 | 545 |
| 4 | Lokesh Rahul | 546 | 48 | 9 | 81 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 536 |
| 5 | Hardik Pandya | 226 | 21 | 4 | 112 | 10 | 5.7 | 9 | 510 |
| 6 | Jasprit Bumrah | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 18 | 4.4 | 9 | 505 |
| 7 | Ravindra Jadeja | 153 | 11 | 4 | 121 | 7 | 5.1 | 8 | 451 |
| 8 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 3 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 14 | 5.2 | 9 | 358 |
| 9 | Shreyas Iyer | 266 | 17 | 11 | 113 | 0 | 13 | 6 | 350 |
| 10 | M S Dhoni | 273 | 20 | 5 | 87.8 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 337 |
| 11 | Rishabh Pant | 253 | 28 | 6 | 98.4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 312 |
| 12 | Kuldeep Yadav | 1 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 12 | 5.2 | 12 | 292 |
| 13 | Yuzvendra Chahal | 5 | 1 | 0 | 100 | 13 | 5.9 | 9 | 282 |
| 14 | Kedar Jadhav | 180 | 16 | 3 | 100 | 0 | 5.2 | 12 | 244 |
| 15 | Shikhar Dhawan | 163 | 22 | 0 | 102 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 198 |
| 16 | Vijay Shankar | 58 | 6 | 0 | 77.3 | 2 | 4.1 | 3 | 131 |
| 17 | Khaleel Ahmed | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7.5 | 3 | 58 |
| 18 | Shardul Thakur | 17 | 2 | 1 | 283 | 2 | 6.7 | 2 | 48 |
| 19 | Navdeep Saini | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5.8 | 1 | 47 |
| 20 | Deepak Chahar | 6 | 0 | 0 | 75 | 1 | 5.4 | 2 | 23 |
| 21 | Dinesh Karthik | 14 | 2 | 0 | 41.2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 15 |
| 22 | Manish Pandey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 23 | Shivam Dube | 9 | 1 | 0 | 150 | 0 | 8.7 | 1 | -16 |
*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.
India recently completed a closely fought 3-match ODI series at home against the West Indies.
Rohit Sharma was again the most valuable player with a MVPI of 302, but Nicholas Pooran (279), Sjimton Hetmyer (248) and Shai Hope (226) were also impressive.
Table 2 lists the most valuable players of the India-West Indies series.
Table 2: Most Valuable Players of the India-West Indies series
| Rank | Player | Team | Runs | Top Scores | 4s | 6s | Strike_Rate | Wickets | Economy Rate | Matches | MVPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rohit Sharma | IND | 258 | 159 | 31 | 6 | 100 | 0 | - | 3 | 302 |
| 2 | Nicholas Pooran | WI | 193 | 89 | 50 | 9 | 144 | 0 | - | 3 | 279 |
| 3 | Shimron Hetmyer | WI | 180 | 139 | 13 | 9 | 123 | 0 | - | 3 | 248 |
| 4 | Shai Hope | WI | 222 | 102 | 19 | 4 | 77.6 | 0 | - | 3 | 226 |
| 5 | Lokesh Rahul | IND | 185 | 102 | 17 | 4 | 88.9 | 0 | - | 3 | 197 |
| 6 | Shreyas Iyer | IND | 130 | 70 | 9 | 5 | 102 | 0 | 13 | 3 | 169 |
| 7 | Keemo Paul | WI | 46 | 46 | 4 | 3 | 110 | 6 | 6.6 | 3 | 169 |
| 8 | Rishabh Pant | IND | 117 | 71 | 11 | 5 | 129 | 0 | - | 3 | 168 |
| 9 | Kieron Pollard | WI | 74 | 74 | 3 | 7 | 142 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 152 |
| 10 | Ravindra Jadeja | IND | 60 | 39 | 6 | 0 | 115 | 3 | 6.2 | 3 | 133 |
| 11 | Virat Kohli | IND | 89 | 85 | 10 | 0 | 104 | 0 | - | 3 | 116 |
| 12 | Mohammed Shami | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6.1 | 3 | 95 |
| 13 | Kedar Jadhav | IND | 65 | 40 | 7 | 1 | 118 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 83 |
| 14 | Kuldeep Yadav | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 3 | 5.5 | 3 | 71 |
| 15 | Alzarri Joseph | WI | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6.4 | 3 | 68 |
| 16 | Sheldon Cottrell | WI | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 65 |
| 17 | Shardul Thakur | IND | 17 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 283 | 2 | 6.7 | 2 | 48 |
| 18 | Navdeep Saini | IND | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 2 | 5.8 | 1 | 47 |
| 19 | Roston Chase | WI | 42 | 38 | 3 | 0 | 73.7 | 0 | 6.8 | 3 | 43 |
| 20 | Jason Holder | WI | 18 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 106 | 1 | 5.7 | 3 | 34 |
| 21 | Evin Lewis | WI | 51 | 30 | 8 | 0 | 60 | 0 | - | 2 | 31 |
| 22 | Deepak Chahar | IND | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 75 | 1 | 5.4 | 2 | 23 |
| 23 | Sunil Ambris | WI | 9 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 113 | 0 | - | 1 | 11 |
| 24 | Khary Pierre | WI | 21 | 21 | 3 | 0 | 117 | 0 | 6.8 | 2 | -1 |
| 25 | Hayden Walsh | WI | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 6.2 | 1 | -6 |
| 26 | Shivam Dube | IND | 9 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 150 | 0 | 8.7 | 1 | -16 |
Team ' Runs (scored) ' 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.
