England stars battle it out for ODI MVP

England will be hoping to bounce back from their International T20 2-1 series defeat against India as they face the same opponent in a three game Royal London One-Day International Series starting at Trent Bridge this Thursday.

Moeen Ali currently leads the England ODI Most Valuable Player Rankings after a mightily impressive series last out against Australia where England created history as they became the first English side to defeat Australia 5-0 in any format of the game.

The Worcestershire all-rounder’s performances were imperative in the series victory as he took 12 wickets, chipped in with valuable runs and bowled economically to take him to the summit of the ODI Rankings with 101 MVP points.

Moeen has been backed up by fellow spinner Adil Rashid in the white-ball format, with the leg-spinner currently sitting third in the ODI Rankings with 81 MVP points and fifth in the Overall Rankings with 103 MVP Points.

Rashid has bamboozled batsman from both Australia and India this summer with a string of fine displays with the ball.

Placed in between the two spinners in the ODI MVP Rankings is the impressive Jos Buttler who is four points behind Moeen in the ODI Rankings with 97 MVP points.

Buttler was recently awarded the PCA MVP for the summer IT20s after his two half centuries in four games placed him ahead of the chasing pack.

The wicketkeeper batsman is arguably in the form of his career this summer with an array of sublime performances in all formats of the game. Known for his abrasive approach he has been the hallmark of consistency topping the Overall England MVP charts with 176 MVP points.

To put this into context, Buttler’s closest rival in the Overall MVP Rankings is fellow hard-hitting batsman Jason Roy who sits over 60 points behind in second place with 111 points.

Roy has had an impressive summer of his own scoring two centuries in the recent five match ODI whitewash of Australia which took him to fifth place in the ODI MVP Rankings with 69 MVP points.

The successful power hitting of England’s ODI batting line-up was evident as they recorded five centuries in the Australia series with the entire top order batsman chipping in with valuable runs.

Jonny Bairstow and Alex Hales both had impressive ODI series last out and sit fourth and six in England’s ODI MVP Rankings with 74 and 42 MVP points respectively.

Sitting in behind the destructive duo is England Captain Eoin Morgan who became England’s leading run scorer in ODI cricket in the series against Australia, surpassing Ian Bell’s 5,416 runs.

This on a day England firmly stated their position as the number one ODI side in the world setting a new record high score of 481-6 as they broke their own world record set two years ago. With the series opening at the same venue, can England look to challenge their own world record at Trent Bridge once again?

Ben Stokes could be set for a return to England’s ODI side for the match against India at Trent Bridge tomorrow. The all-rounder has missed all of England’s summer ODIs so far after a hamstring injury he picked up during the Test series against Pakistan ruled him out for six weeks.

Stokes featured in the final IT20 defeat at Bristol last Sunday for the first time since the first Test against Pakistan in May and the all-rounder will be hopeful of making his mark on the MVP Rankings.