Who is the most valuable indian player in the last decade ?

Sachin Tendulkar has been in the best form of his life in the last year. He has not scored more runs in a year than what he has already scored in this year. He also became the first player in the history of ODIs to score a double hundred. But my choice for the most valuable player is not sachin.

My choice for the most valuable player in the past decade are the two Vs of the Indian cricket. V.V.S Laxman and Virendra Sehwag. Both of the have made valuable match winning contribution in the last decade. The nature of the contribution is totally different for both of them. While Sehwag has mainly contributed in the first innings, it is the opposite for Laxman.

Laxman is one of the player you can rely on when the chips are down. He has bailed out the indian team in the 4th innings of a test match numerous times. He has got under the skin of the aussies. His speciality has been to strive under pressure. He relishes playing under pressure. He specializes in playing with the tailenders. Be it the famous 2001 test series against the aussies, the 2010 sri lanka series or the just concluded series against the aussies; Laxman has delivered when the team had lost all the hope in winning the match. That is his speciality which Sachin has already lacked.

Sehwag on the other hand has mainly dominated the opposition in the early stages of the test matches. He has given blazing start to the team, which not only increases the run rate (thus increasing the chances of the match producing a result) but also increases the morale of the batsmen down the order. The bowlers are crushed when he is in full flow. One of the negative points about Sehwag is that he fails in the 2nd innings but he makes up for it in the first innings by scoring doubles and triples !!

I see tremendous potential in Murli Vijay who can become the most valuable player in the next decade. He is a free flowing batsmen like sachin.