Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji reveal the Most Valuable Players of the India-Australia ODI series.
Steve Smith got to bat only twice, but still scored enough runs, at almost run a ball, to emerge as the most valuable player of the India-Australia ODI series (MVPI: 293).
Virat Kohli, the world's best ODI player, was second with a MVPI of 225.
Recall that the Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) collapses the player's batting, bowling and fielding performance into a single 'run equivalent'.
The other top places were bagged by the usual suspects: Top order batsmen and wicket-taking bowlers.
Rohit Sharma, in the form of his life, was below par although he produced that vital century India needed to bag the series after the shocking loss in the first game at Mumbai (MVPI: 186).
K L Rahul (MVPI: 200) was impressive, and his MVPI should rise even higher now that he is also the wicket-keeper.
Most Valuable Players in the India-Australia ODI Series
| Rank | Player | Runs | Top Score | Four | Six | Strike Rate | Wickets | Economy | Games | MVPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steven Smith | 229 | 131 | 23 | 2 | 97.9 | 0 | - | 3 | 293 |
| 2 | Virat Kohli | 183 | 89 | 14 | 1 | 101.1 | 0 | - | 3 | 225 |
| 3 | Lokesh Rahul | 146 | 80 | 12 | 3 | 104.3 | 0 | - | 3 | 200 |
| 4 | Shikhar Dhawan | 170 | 96 | 22 | 2 | 93.9 | 0 | - | 3 | 189 |
| 5 | David Warner | 146 | 128 | 19 | 3 | 111.5 | 0 | - | 3 | 188 |
| 6 | Rohit Sharma | 171 | 119 | 16 | 6 | 91.4 | 0 | - | 3 | 186 |
| 7 | Aaron Finch | 162 | 110 | 17 | 3 | 86.2 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 163 |
| 8 | Ravindra Jadeja | 45 | 25 | 3 | 1 | 93.8 | 4 | 5.1 | 3 | 155 |
| 9 | Mohammed Shami | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 68.8 | 7 | 7.2 | 3 | 139 |
| 10 | Adam Zampa | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 58.3 | 5 | 4.9 | 3 | 137 |
| 11 | Kane Richardson | 24 | 24 | 4 | 1 | 218.2 | 4 | 6.1 | 2 | 119 |
| 12 | Alex Carey | 53 | 35 | 6 | 1 | 100 | 0 | - | 3 | 102 |
| 13 | Marnus Labuschagne | 100 | 54 | 9 | 0 | 90.1 | 0 | 8.3 | 3 | 98 |
| 14 | Ashton Agar | 36 | 25 | 3 | 0 | 94.7 | 2 | 5.6 | 3 | 83 |
| 15 | Shreyas Iyer | 55 | 44 | 7 | 1 | 90.2 | 0 | - | 3 | 77 |
| 16 | Kuldeep Yadav | 17 | 17 | 2 | 0 | 113.3 | 3 | 6.1 | 3 | 65 |
| 17 | Navdeep Saini | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 3 | 6.4 | 2 | 48 |
| 18 | Jasprit Bumrah | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 1 | 4.6 | 3 | 36 |
| 19 | Mitchell Starc | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 42.9 | 3 | 6.9 | 3 | 35 |
| 20 | Rishabh Pant | 28 | 28 | 2 | 1 | 84.8 | 0 | - | 1 | 29 |
| 21 | Pat Cummins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 22 |
| 23 | Josh Hazlewood | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 1 | 5.8 | 1 | 18 |
| 22 | Manish Pandey | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 125 | 0 | - | 2 | 18 |
| 24 | Ashton Turner | 17 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 68 | 0 | - | 3 | 18 |
| 25 | Yuzvendra Chahal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | - | 0 | 5 |
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.
Photographs: BCCI
