Murali Vijay - The new lynchpin of India's batting line up
Murali Vijay, the stylish right-handed opening batsmen from Tamilnadu comes up as somebody who has immense powers of concentration, a cool head and almost all the strokes in the cricketing guide. His presence at the wicket is reminiscent that of a monk, calm, cool and collective.
But this was not the perception which we had of him, say until a couple of years ago where he was somebody who looked like a stylish player but was far too inconsistent and that hunger to bat for long hours and score big, which we witness today was somehow missing.
The watchful beginner
Vijay made his debut for India in 2008 against Australia at Nagpur, where he was a replacement for Gautam Gambhir who was facing a one-match ban because of on-field altercation. His call to the national team was on the back of some wonderful domestic performances, especially the 462 run opening stand with Abhinav Mukund.
He did reasonably well in his first outing as an international player scoring 33 and 41 in the first and second innings respectively. But, then Gambhir came back and opportunities for Vijay were spread far in between. However, he became a crucial part in the Chennai Super Kings set-up in the IPL, he scored big in the crucial IPL games but those twenty-twenty performances caught up on his real game which was to spend long hours on the wicket and score big.
During a period of four years after his debut, he scored only two first-class centuries, exactly the same number of which he had scored in the T-20s. He got his first chance as an opener for the entire series in 2011 against the West Indies, but he did not perform well. It seemed that he was far too casual in his approach and the selectors started to look elsewhere as well; giving Mukund an opportunity and even trying out Dravid as the make-shift opener.
Mukund did not fare well either and Dravid had retired from international cricket, which gave Vijay another go as the opener in the 2012-13 home series against Australia. He latched on to this opportunity with both hands and did exceedingly well, scoring 430 runs at an average of 61.42 and was India’s leading run-scorer in the series.
Vijay scored two back to back 150’s which spoke volumes about his levels of concentration and willingness to bat for long hours and score big runs. In that series, Vijay showed that he could leave the ball and wait for the poor deliveries to pounce on and score runs and that he could do that for long hours.
But then those were familiar conditions and the real test was yet to come when he played outside the subcontinent, where the ball swung and seamed consistently and he had to curb his instincts of driving full and wide deliveries and playing onto a fifth stump or a wider line which was not much of a problem in home conditions.
Overseas success
India then went onto tours of South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia and a real challenge was on the cards. Vijay batted superbly in England, and his innings of 165 at Trent bridge and a match winning 95 at Lord’s meant that he was steadily beginning to cement his place in the playing XI. He was India’s top run getter there too when big names struggled to get runs, amassing a total of 402 runs in the five Test matches at an average of 40.20 runs per innings.
In the 2014-15 tour of Australia, Vijay came into his own as he consistently batted for long periods and scored 408 runs in the 4 matches and was instrumental in India’s strong batting performance down under. The 144 at the Gabba was a testament of Vijay’s new found confidence. He had found a different zone for himself where he could play the second fiddle and just bat the way he wanted to.
Surely, Vijay has seen it all in his 31 matches old Test career and the fact that he averages over 40 having played 20 of those outside Asia says that he has done pretty well as India’s opener.
He has so far scored 6 international centuries out of which 5 have been 150 plus scores. It shows that once he gets in, he aims for a big score which is a very important trait for any opening batsman. Once you are through with the initial period where the ball swings and seams, you should be able to make it count, which is exactly what Vijay has done. He goes about his job calmly and in an unruffled manner, much like a monk who is experienced and takes up all the challenges with equal ease.
The rise of Murali Vijay has been stupendous, he has been somebody who will never get as many accolades as say a Virat Kohli does but his role nonetheless is as important as him and much of India’s top order’s success depends on how he performs.