Bat vs bat in India-Aus ODIs; The Most Valuable Players

Who were the most valuable players in the just-concluded India-Australia ODI series? Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji ‘s formula provides overwhelming evidence that the bat complete overwhelmed the bat.

George Bailey The just-concluded India-Australia ODI series is being called the ‘bat vs bat’ series. It is, therefore, no surprise that batsmen dominate the Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) tables.

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, and expresses a player’s overall batting + bowling + fielding performance in terms of a ‘run equivalent’.

Table 1 lists the MVPI of all the players who played in the ODI series. It provides overwhelming evidence that the bat completely overwhelmed the bat.

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George Bailey, Australia's captain, emerges the MVP, with a MVPI of 663, followed by Rohit Sharma, with a MVPI of 655.

James Faulkner, the only successful all-rounder on either side, is third with a MVPI of 635 – he scored 230 runs but at a strike rate often not seen even in T20 games. Ravindra Jadeja didn’t score runs, and Shane Watson didn’t get enough wickets.

The table also shows that Suresh Raina is struggling as a batsman, and Yuvraj Singh – the hero of India’s 2011 World Cup triumph – is struggling both as a bowler and batsman.

Table 1: Most valuable players in the India-Australia series (Oct 13 – Nov 2, 2013)

Rank	Player	Team	Runs	Str Rate	W	Eco	M	MVPI
1	George Bailey	AUS	478	116	0	-	6	663
2	Rohit Sharma	IND	491	109	0	-	6	655
3	James Faulkner	AUS	230	150	7	7.2	6	635
4	Virat Kohli	IND	344	123	0	11	6	581
5	Shane Watson	AUS	237	113	3	7.2	6	494
6	Glenn Maxwell	AUS	248	152	1	7.3	6	431
7	MS Dhoni	IND	245	120	0	-	6	428
8	Shikhar Dhawan	IND	284	102	0	-	6	396
9	Vinay Kumar	IND	11	55	8	7.9	5	361
10	Brad Haddin	AUS	78	92.9	0	-	6	321
11	Ravindra Jadeja	IND	13	59.1	8	5.6	6	318
12	R Ashwin	IND	33	73.3	9	6	6	309
13	Aaron Finch	AUS	190	86.8	2	4.2	6	268
14	Mitchell Johnson	AUS	34	89.5	7	5.7	5	240
15	Mohammed Shami	IND	0	-	7	6.6	3	239
16	Phillip Hughes	AUS	199	74.3	0	-	6	225
17	Clint McKay	AUS	36	81.8	4	6.5	6	203
18	Adam Voges	AUS	149	84.2	1	5.3	6	202
19	Suresh Raina	IND	100	91.7	0	5.5	6	177
20	Ishant Sharma	IND	1	33.3	2	7.9	3	144
21	Bhuvneshwar Kumar	IND	28	62.2	2	5.4	5	141
22	Yuvraj Singh	IND	19	76	2	7.2	6	136
23	Xavier Doherty	AUS	0	-	2	6.2	6	128
24	Nathan Coulter-Nile	AUS	3	60	0	8	1	37
25	Amit Mishra	IND	0	-	0	7.8	1	28
26	Jaydev Unadkat	IND	0	-	0	5.2	1	1

Runs (scored) ' 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.

Table 2, which shows India’s most valuable players in the 21 matches played so far in India’s 2013-14 season, confirms Yuvraj’s form decline. For many years, Yuvraj was in the top three of the MVPI list. This year he is languishing at the bottom.

But at least he’s still getting opportunities to play. Renowned ODI stalwarts like Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are completely off the charts!

Table 2: India’s most valuable players in the 2013-14 ODI season (21 matches played; 1 abandoned)

Rank	Player name	Runs	6	4	Strike Rate	Bat Point	W	Eco	Bowl Point	Field Point	M	MVPI
1	Ravindra Jadeja	227	6	21	82.2	224	33	4.9	919.2	85	21	1359
2	Shikhar Dhawan	991	9	117	95.8	1120	0	5.8	0	65	20	1210
3	Virat Kohli	865	15	95	102.6	1028	0	6.2	-35	70	21	1193
4	Rohit Sharma	984	28	92	82.3	972.2	0	4.9	0	32.5	20	1044
5	Ravichandran Ashwin	78	0	7	78.8	73.5	23	4.7	541	45	16	770
6	Bhuvneshwar Kumar	40	1	3	60.6	25	18	3.6	517	42.5	14	659
7	MS Dhoni	344	9	32	107.2	420.5	0	6.4	3	140	13	632
8	Suresh Raina	337	4	27	92.8	371.5	2	5.6	56	110	21	568
9	Ishant Sharma	5	0	0	29.4	-4.2	20	1.8	377	27.5	13	559
10	Amit Mishra	9	0	1	128.6	12.2	18	7.7	450.5	5	6	524
11	Vinay Kumar	43	2	3	89.6	46	10	5.4	124.5	22.5	9	464
12	Mohammed Shami	6	1	0	300	10.3	13	18	304.8	15	9	428
13	Dinesh Karthik	255	2	27	70.4	208.3	0	4.2	0	92.5	15	301
14	Jaydev Unadkat	0	0	0	0	0	8	0	260	25	6	287
15	Umesh Yadav	0	0	0	0	-5	11	0	240	30	9	265
16	Yuvraj Singh	19	2	0	76	17.2	2	4.6	19	37.5	6	136
17	Murali Vijay	57	0	7	89.1	60.7	0	5.3	0	10	3	71
18	Ambati Rayudu	101	0	6	62	66.2	0	3.7	0	0	4	66

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 ' ' *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.

Image: George Bailey

Photograph: BCCI