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WT20 MVP: Indians just not there

June 16, 2009 01:08 IST

You have to search really hard to find names of Indian players in the list of the "most valuable players" so far in the ICC World Twenty20. Yuvraj Singh is at the sixth position... but then there's practically no one else! After you run your finger down the list for quite a while you'll run into Pragyan Ojha at No. 22, Yusuf Pathan at No. 24 and Rohit Sharma at No. 25.

The most valuable player index (MVPI) collapses a player's batting, bowling and fielding performance into a single runs equivalent. Batsmen scoring a lot of runs with a good strike rate and bowlers taking a lot of wickets with a low economy rate usually figure at the top of the list.

For the ICC World Twenty20, we have assumed a par score of 160, i.e., 8 runs per over. We have further assumed that every wicket is 'worth' 16 marks, and every catch or stumping is worth 4 runs.

Batsmen get bonus runs if they score more than 8 runs in 6 runs, i.e. have a strike rate greater than 133; but they are penalized runs if they have a strike rate below 133. Since T20 cricket is all about hitting fours and sixes, we also add a 'bonus' run for every four, and two bonus runs for every six.

Bowlers get bonus runs if they concede less than 8 runs per over; but are penalized if they concede more than 8 runs in an over.

Consider, for example, Dwayne Bravo, currently placed second. He has hit 136 runs so far at a strike rate of almost 150. This converts to 172 runs, with 15 bonus runs added because of the higher strike rate, 11 runs for the 11 fours and 10 runs for the 5 sixes (136+15+11+10 = 172). Bravo's 6 wickets fetch him 96 more 'runs'; but this goes down to 86, because Bravo is penalized 10 runs since he conceded 8.7 runs per over.  Bravo also took a catch worth 4 runs, and therefore ended up with 172+86+4 = 262 'runs'.

The table below ranks the 100 most valuable players. This list was calculated after India's loss last night to England.

Rank Player Team Runs Four Six Strike rate W Eco MVPI
1 Lendl Simmons WI 150 22 1 141.5 5 8.2 274
2 Dwayne Bravo WI 136 11 5 149.5 6 8.7 262
3 Jacques Kallis SA 174 21 3 129.9 3 7.1 256
4 Tillakaratne Dilshan SL 173 29 1 144.2 0 -- 229
5 Umar Gul PAK 17 1 1 170.0 10 6.7 209
6 Yuvraj Singh IND 128 9 8 173.0 1 8.0 206
7 AB de Villiers SA 122 9 6 190.6 0 -- 184
8 Shahid Afridi PAK 23 1 1 100.0 7 5.4 183
9 Lasith Malinga SL 3 0 0 100.0 10 7.3 177
10 Wayne Parnell SA 0 0 0 -- 8 5.1 176
11 Younis Khan PAK 132 9 3 150.0 0 -- 174
12 Roelof van der Merwe SA 1 0 0 11.1 8 5.8 165
13 Brendon McCullum NZ 97 12 1 119.8 0 -- 160
14 Kevin Pietersen ENG 123 14 4 150.0 0 9.0 158
15 Luke Wright ENG 107 14 1 137.2 1 8.3 156
16 Sanath Jayasuriya SL 136 17 4 129.5 0 9.4 151
17 Alex Cusack IRL 34 3 1 161.9 7 8.6 149
18 Ajantha Mendis SL 4 1 0 400.0 7 6.1 149
19 Chris Gayle WI 115 10 6 133.7 0 6.6 148
20 Saeed Ajmal PAK 0 0 0 -- 7 5.8 143
21 Graeme Smith SA 113 18 1 116.5 0 -- 137
22 Pragyan Ojha IND 0 0 0 -- 7 6.2 136
23 Trent Johnston IRL 23 0 2 153.3 5 6.8 133
24 Yusuf Pathan IND 65 4 3 158.5 2 7.6 132
25 Rohit Sharma IND 102 9 3 129.1 1 -- 130
26 Stuart Broad ENG 12 1 0 133.3 5 6.0 129
27 Dale Steyn SA 0 0 0 -- 6 6.1 128
28 Scott Styris NZ 79 1 4 121.5 2 7.8 125
29 Kyle McCallan IRL 9 1 0 100.0 6 7.2 124
30 Harbhajan Singh IND 13 3 0 325.0 4 6.9 121
31 Gautam Gambhir IND 127 13 1 109.5 0 -- 118
32 Kyle Coetzer SCO 75 4 5 159.6 0 -- 117
33 Mahela Jayawardene SL 110 11 1 122.2 0 -- 117
34 A J Redmond NZ 78 15 0 177.3 0 -- 112
35 Shoaib Malik PAK 82 9 0 115.5 1 7.3 110
36 Herschelle Gibbs SA 104 10 2 120.9 0 -- 107
37 Kumar Sangakkara SL 78 5 2 105.4 0 -- 106
38 Kamran Akmal PAK 71 4 3 120.3 0 -- 105
39 Niall O'Brien IRL 74 7 3 112.1 0 -- 101
40 Mashrafe Mortaza BAN 44 1 3 183.3 2 7.4 100
41 Muttiah Muralitharan SL 0 0 0 0.0 4 5.7 100
42 Zaheer Khan IND 0 0 0 -- 6 8.3 96
43 Kyle Mills NZ 0 0 0 0.0 4 6.9 90
44 Johan Botha SA 6 2 0 150.0 3 6.1 90
45 Andre Fletcher WI 66 8 2 132.0 0 -- 89
46 MS Dhoni IND 81 4 1 105.2 0 -- 89
47 Martin Guptill NZ 59 2 4 131.1 0 -- 88
48 Ian Butler NZ 1 0 0 100.0 5 6.8 88
49 Owais Shah ENG 88 7 3 106.0 0 -- 86
50 Nathan McCullum NZ 7 1 0 63.6 4 5.3 86
51 Fidel Edwards WI 2 0 0 100.0 6 9.2 84
52 Jerome Taylor WI 0 0 0 0.0 6 8.7 84
53 Angelo Mathews SL 22 2 0 129.4 2 6.8 83
54 Junaid Siddique BAN 54 5 3 200.0 0 -- 83
55 Ravi Bopara ENG 90 9 1 109.8 0 -- 82
56 Mitchell Johnson AUS 37 3 2 185.0 2 9.1 80
57 Graeme Swann ENG 5 0 0 71.4 4 6.8 80
58 David Warner AUS 63 6 1 112.5 1 -- 79
59 John Mooney IRL 79 8 0 111.3 0 -- 79
60 Albie Morkel SA 20 2 0 111.1 3 7.5 77
61 Ryan ten Doeschate NRL 36 2 1 133.3 3 9.6 75
62 Ryan Watson SCO 31 7 0 221.4 2 10.0 74
63 Dimitri Mascarenhas ENG 42 3 0 100.0 2 6.4 74
64 James Anderson ENG 0 0 0 0.0 4 7.3 73
65 Paul Collingwood ENG 52 6 0 115.6 1 8.5 73
66 Naeem Islam BAN 35 0 3 134.6 2 8.2 72
67 Tom de Grooth NRL 53 6 1 143.2 0 -- 69
68 Peter Borren NRL 32 1 1 110.3 2 8.1 67
69 David Hussey AUS 55 1 5 144.7 0 16.0 66
70 Kevin O'Brien IRL 43 4 2 165.4 0 8.1 62
71 Boyd Rankin IRL 0 0 0 -- 3 7.6 61
72 Misbah-ul-Haq PAK 62 3 1 110.7 0 -- 58
73 Jacob Oram NZ 52 4 1 123.8 0 8.4 54
74 Jean-Paul Duminy SA 31 1 2 110.7 1 8.0 54
75 Shakib Al Hasan BAN 15 1 0 88.2 2 6.7 53
76 Kieron Pollard WI 25 4 0 166.7 2 9.8 52
77 Andre Botha IRL 36 6 0 156.5 0 -- 51
78 Regan West IRL 10 1 0 100.0 2 7.3 51
79 Peter McGlashan NZ 13 1 0 100.0 0 -- 50
80 Salman Butt PAK 46 7 1 117.9 0 -- 49
81 Sulieman Benn WI 13 2 0 144.4 1 7.9 49
82 Darron Reekers NRL 33 4 2 173.7 0 -- 49
83 Andrew White IRL 51 4 2 110.9 0 -- 49
84 Mohammad Aamer PAK 0 0 0 -- 3 8.0 48
85 Pieter Seelaar NRL 1 0 0 50.0 3 8.6 46
86 Ravindra Jadeja IND 25 1 0 71.4 2 6.5 46
87 Ramnaresh Sarwan WI 44 2 0 112.8 0 -- 46
88 Irfan Pathan IND 13 1 1 216.7 1 7.3 46
89 Brett Lee AUS 16 2 1 266.7 3 11.9 45
90 Shahzaib Hasan PAK 35 4 2 125.0 0 -- 45
91 Jehan Mubarak SL 41 2 2 113.9 0 -- 44
92 Mark Boucher SA 25 0 1 119.0 0 -- 44
93 Majid Haq SCO 15 0 0 75.0 2 6.3 42
94 Ross Taylor NZ 43 3 2 104.9 0 -- 42
95 Abdul Razzaq PAK 5 0 0 62.5 1 4.9 42
96 Jesse Ryder NZ 31 3 2 258.3 0 19.0 42
97 Ryan Sidebottom ENG 0 0 0 -- 2 6.8 42
98 James Foster ENG 24 0 1 120.0 0 -- 39
99 Adil Rashid ENG 9 0 0 52.9 2 7.0 39
100 Chamara Silva SL 30 3 0 100.0 0 -- 39

The Indian captain is at No. 46, with a disappointing strike rate of 105, chiefly because M S Dhoni seems to have temporarily lost his ability to hit fours and sixes.

If it's any consolation, the Australian captain Ricky Ponting doesn't figure even in the top 100. Ishant Sharma is at No. 104 and Suresh Raina - who did so well in IPL2 - is at No. 109!

Srinivas Bhogle works for TEOCO Software Pvt Ltd. Purnendu Maji carried out the statistical analysis.

Srinivas Bhogle