Gambhir tops the MVP list-December 14, 2010

Gambhir tops the MVP list

December 14, 2010 09:09 IST

Gautam Gambhir was the most valuable player (MVP) of the recently-concluded India-New Zealand One-Day International series, but Yusuf Pathan [ Images ], with that explosive century and eight wickets, wasn't too far behind.

The five most valuable players of the series were all Indians, which isn't such a surprise, because it was such a one-sided series, the hosts blanking New Zealand [ Images ] 5-0.

It is a pleasure to see off-spinner R Ashwin high on the list; he bagged a lot of wickets at a very decent economy rate and seems a great prospect.

Our formula to compute MVP 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.

See Table 1, below, for the full MVP list.

Table 1: Most valuable players in the India-New Zealand series:


Runs (scored) | Sixes | Fours | Top score | 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.

It has been a funny sort of ODI season for India [ Images ]. India have played most of their matches with Sri Lanka [ Images ] (7) and New Zealand (7). The other opponents include Zimbabwe (2), Bangladesh (1), Pakistan (1) and Australia [ Images ] (1).

The most prolific ODI scorer in the world -- Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ] -- doesn't even figure on the scorecard!

Established winners like Virender Sehwag [ Images ], Yuvraj Singh [ Images ], Zaheer Khan [ Images ], Harbhajan Singh [ Images ] and even Mahendra Singh Dhoni figure lower down the list; Dhoni hasn't even captained many ODI matches this season.

Virat Kohli [ Images ], Gautam Gambhir [ Images ] and Rohit Sharma [ Images ] have scored the most runs, while Ashish Nehra [ Images ], Praveen Kumar [ Images ] and R Ashwin have taken the most wickets. Ravindra Jadeja [ Images ] has scored runs and taken wickets without ever being convincing or captivating. One could say the same about India's lacklustre ODI season so far too.

Table 2: India's most valuable players in the 2010-11 ODI season (19 matches so far)