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England batter ends the summer with the most MVP points in the ODI format.
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Joe Root has been named as the Metro Bank ODI Men’s Player of the Summer, having also become England Men’s record run-scorer in the 50-over format this year.
The Yorkshireman finished top of the MVP Rankings, powered by OFX, with 91.13 points after scoring 442 runs at an average of 88.40, including centuries against both the West Indies and South Africa.
It was Root’s third individual ODI achievement of the summer, having previously surpassed former England captain Eoin Morgan to become England Men’s highest run scorer in the format and recorded a new personal best of 166* against the West Indies.
That superb innings, which came off 139 balls with 21 fours and two sixes, led England to a three-wicket victory and earned Root a Match MVP after picking up 38.43 MVP points.
He finished that series as the leading run scorer with 267 runs at an average of 133.50 and strike-rate of 105.53. He also struck a half-century in the first game as England won by a huge margin of 238 runs before registering 44 in the final match.
The 34-year-old continued that form against South Africa, hitting 61 in a narrow loss in the second match before recording his 19th ODI century in the final game. He finished with 100 off 96 balls, sharing a 182-run partnership with Jacob Bethell for the third wicket, as England won by 342 runs, the highest winning margin in ODI history.
His final tally of 175 runs saw him again finish top of the run-scoring charts for the series and took his tally for England this summer than 1,000 runs across Tests and ODIs.
Root finished ahead of Adil Rashid and Harry Brook in the Men’s ODI MVP standings. He joins his white-ball captain in winning an England Men’s MVP Award this summer, with Brook named Rothesay Men’s Test Player of the Summer after securing 145.05 points in the longest format.
After winning the Metro Bank ODI Men’s Player of the Summer, Joe Root said: “The hundred today was good. It was key to get a couple of partnerships together on that kind of surface. The way Beth [Jacob Bethell] and I dovetail, especially with the wind across the ground, it always felt like one of us could target that and take advantage. Once you get a 100+ run partnership, it is quite hard if you are not taking wickets to slow the game down and we took advantage of that really well.
“I think, more than anything, as soon as you are content with where you are at, you will get found out and everyone will catch up with the way you play. It is important to keep looking to get better and keep finding ways to improve in different areas of the game. The more you play, there is more information on you and there is more for the opposition to use that against you so it is important to keep looking to get better, keeping wanting to find ways of improving but also using the strengths of whoever is at the other end in your favour as much as possible.
“I will continue to keep working on tiny little things and tinkering here and there but it has been fun. Today showed glimpses of what this team is capable of in this format and the more time we spend together, the more games we get under our belt, the more comfortable we will get playing in this format and hopefully we will see more results similar to today.”
The Metro Bank ODI Men’s Player of the Summer was selected by the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings, powered by OFX, the PCA’s Official FX Partner. The formula takes into account expected performance on every ball according to CricViz’s extensive database. The algorithm also considers the historic performances of the venue each fixture is being played at, therefore giving a more accurate reflection of the top performers in the game than traditional batting and bowling averages do.
England’s white-ball squad are soon back in action as they begin the Vitality IT20 series against South Africa on Wednesday 10 September. They will then travel to Ireland for a three-match IT20 to end their summer.
The ODI team, meanwhile, will return to action when they travel to New Zealand to play a three-match series in late October.
View the final ODI and Overall Men’s International tables here.
Save time and money with OFX, the PCA’s Official FX partner, offering members bank-beating rates and an easier way to send money home.
