CHENNAI : It was hard to say which time zone Vijay Shankar was in when he walked into the middle with Tamil Nadu struggling at 73/4 at IS Bindra Stadium against Punjab. On Tuesday he was in Mount Maunganui, guiding India A to a 3-0 whitewash of New Zealand A. A day later he left for Chandigarh via Wellington, Singapore, Mumbai and Delhi, hoping to reach by Thursday afternoon.
A delayed flight from Singapore meant he missed a connection and took a cab from Delhi to reach Chandigarh at 3am, six and-a-half hours before this game. The last year was a mixed bag for Vijay. In 2017 at this time, he was part of the Test side against Sri Lanka and seen as a back-up for all-rounder Hardik Pandya. Then he made India debut in T20s, a format few expected him to do well in. After that Nidahas Trophy final, which he struggled to get out of his mind, he was in England, auditioning for the all-rounder slot with India A, without good returns.
When Pandya was sidelined with injury, Vijay was seen as a replacement. But only for a selector to say, there is no replacement for Pandya, as there are no all-rounders in the country. It was in this backdrop that Vijay, after a few good outings in Vijay Hazare Trophy, left for New Zealand. The only Indian to play three of the four-day fixtures and all three 50-over games, his tally of 188 in one-dayers was the highest for both teams. All of it, including his 71 on Friday which kept Tamil Nadu in the game, has come when Vijay was forced out of his comfort zone.
A good top-order batsman, he is No 6 in Ranji. With India A, his position changes as per requirements. “It’s easy to crib and say, ‘I can do better if I bat higher’ but that’s of no use. This has helped me take more responsibility and test myself against different challenges. With India A, I bat higher if we lose early wickets. Else, I bat down. But I have to adjust. I’m not thinking about proving a point because if I keep working hard, the rest will follow,” Vijay said after helping Tamil Nadu close the day at 213/9.
Though he might have liked a few more hours in the dressing room, Vijay walked in soon after lunch as Manpreet Gony and debutant Baltej Singh wrecked havoc on a greenish track. While openers Abhinav Mukund and N Jagadeesan could have done little, middle-order men Baba Indrajith, Dinesh Karthik, Baba Aparajith and Shahrukh Khan played expansive shots. Though in good nick, Vijay’s challenge was to overcome jet lag and a tired body. “It was more mental.
I had never played so many back-to-back matches. When told I was playing this game, I was preparing myself mentally. During the long flight I was thinking of the game. Eventually the tiredness caught up as I ended up being sick. These things push you out of your comfort zone. So no complaints,” Vijay said. Tamil Nadu were not complaining either.
BRIEF SCORES
ELITE GROUP A
In Surat: Gujarat 216 (Panchal 74; Vinay Kumar 2/33) vs Karnataka 45/2
ELITE GROUP B
In Mohali: Tamil Nadu 213/9 (Vijay 71, MS Gony 5/56) vs Punjab
In Hyderabad: Bengal 99/2 (Easwaran 57 n.o) vs Hyderabad
In Amtar: Andhra 173 (Jyothisaikrishna 74; Jaiswal 5/50) vs Himachal Pradesh 51/1
In T’puram: Kerala 291/7 (Saxena 68, Manoharan 77 n.o, Rahul 77; Shivam 4/78) vs Delhi
ELITE GROUP C
In Bhubaneswar: Rajasthan 135 (Lomror 85; B Mohanty 6/20, R Mohanty 3/63) vs Odisha 78/4
PLATE DIVISION
In Goalpara: Puducherry 136 (Deendyal 4/36, Neri 3/28) & 28/2 vs Arunachal Pradesh 82 (Fabid 6/29, Pankaj 3/20)