Murali Vijay’s cricketing career has been anything but conventional. He wowed one and all with his pyrotechnics with the bat a few years back when he demolished bowling attacks in the IPL playing for CSK. Cut to 2014 and the same man began on a journey to becoming India’s most consistent Test batsman.
Now that he has established himself as a solid Test batsman, Vijay’s next aim is to conquer the 50-over format. His chance to do so is India’s tour to Zimbabwe, where they will play three ODIs and two T20Is.
The opening batsman is confident of making this opportunity count. “I had my chances in ODIs but I didn’t get too many full series to play,” he said ahead of the tour.
“It is very difficult as a batsman to play one-off games. I have been part of the Indian team for seven years now and have played 14 ODIs. That says it all. I am not cribbing about it, that’s how my life has been. This is my opportunity and hopefully I can do justice to it.”
During different parts of his career Vijay has been in the limelight for his clean hitting in the T20s and resilience in Tests. However, although his ODI batting skills have never come to the fore, Vijay claims that’s where his expertise laid during the initial part of his cricketing career.
“I love playing ODIs. In fact, when I started out, I was considered a better One-day player than a first-class or T20 player,” he said. “But then I wanted to play Test cricket badly and I focused on it. In that phase I also missed out on a lot of domestic one-day matches. But all that is history now and I look forward to making this chance count.”
Establishing himself as an ODI player is certainly one goal for the opening batsman on the Zimbabwe sojourn. But Vijay also has his eyes set on a spot in India’s squad for the World Twenty20 in 2016. “I am not saying that I will play the World Twenty20 but I will definitely try to push my case further with this series,” he said.
