CHENNAI: The 2023-24 season has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for Tamil Nadu. After a disappointing Syed Mushtaq Ali, they reached the knockouts in the Vijay Hazare, but once again, when the Ranji Trophy began, the story continued as they lost to Gujarat in the opening game.
With the next match against Tripura drawn with the first innings being unfinished, Tamil Nadu were under pressure going into the game against Railways. However, with N Jagadeesan and spinners stepping up, they eventually came out on top to secure their first win of the tournament. Senior all-rounder Vijay Shankar reiterates the importance of getting that first victory early in the season. "It is very important, only after that the team feels a lot more secure. So we are feeling good at the moment," he says in an interaction facilitated by Star Sports.
Admitting that the ride has been a bit up and down, Vijay said that it is just the results that have not gone their way despite doing a few things right. "We need to keep doing it because Ranji is a very long season. It is just a matter of one game. It is just a start for us, there are a lot of new players who have played, it is also not easy for them. These things are part of everyone's career. It is just that whatever we do, we do it for the team. The double hundred Jaggi scored in the last game (against Railways), he was phenomenal. The pitch was not easy to bat on the second day, he batted so well to get us to a very good total. It is not that everyone gets set every game, whoever gets set on that particular day, if he can make it big, it will be great."
On a personal front, Vijay entered 2024 on the back of a successful 2023. He had scored 483 runs at 53.66, including three centuries in the Ranji Trophy last year, and followed it up with stellar cameos in the IPL — he smashed 301 runs at 37.63 average and 160.11 strike rate for Gujarat Titans — but this season has not been the same. So far, he has 108 runs to show in four innings with an unbeaten fifty against Tripura.
Vijay, however, is not worried too much about the results. He believes that if he sticks to the preparation and process that gave him success in the first place, things will fall in place. At the same time, despite not bowling as much, he has still put in the yards to be ready if and when the team needs him."I keep bowling every session because whenever the time comes I should be there for it. I need to keep doing my stuff, to cover all aspects of the game, when it happens you will be ready. I want to be ready for my job, if it comes, it comes, if it doesn't, then it doesn't. It was a very long journey for me, and I have not gotten things easily, whether it is injuries or anything. It has not been easy. I have learnt a lot of good things, I have literally learnt how to lead a life from cricket. Every day put your head down, keep working and things will fall in place."
For someone who has been around for more than a decade, to be switched on, to adapt between formats and take up whatever role the team needs him to do at this stage in his career, it is never easy. The 32-year-old, however, attributes his success last year across formats and the ability to adapt to his "boring preparation". He pins it down to not being hung up over the disappointments and playing the sport for the love of it.
"There are a lot of disappointments, there are a lot of things which I feel I could have done this, I could have done that, but then if you see what I have with me, I only have this much control over cricket, I only have batting, bowling or fitness which I do every day. Whether I get a chance or not, I do what I have to to prepare. End of the day, I just need to go back to thinking about why I started playing cricket. It is just the love for the game. A lot of disappointments will come to mind, selections or other things, and it does, but then, we can't keep giving it as a reason, I am not going to gain anything from it, if you look at learning every day, things will be fine," says Vijay.
Zooming out a little, in the larger scheme of things, Tamil Nadu have dominated white-ball cricket for a while now and has produced several cricketers who have moved up to the Indian Premier League and the national team. The latest one to make that promotion was Vijay's IPL and state teammate B Sai Sudharsan who made his ODI debut in South Africa recently. Since then all eyes are on the youngster with every performance of his coming under the lens.
Vijay feels that once a player gets to that level, they should not be judged by one or two innings. "In a team sport," he says, "there will be more days where you fail than you succeed. Just because you play for India or India A, it is not like ten out of ten times you will score runs. There will be phases where you will miss out in two-three innings, or a lean patch, these are all a part of cricket. For someone who has reached that level, one failure is not going to define the player. Again you need to stick to process and routine and keep at it all the time. It will be boring at times, but then you do not have an option you need to keep doing that."
As far as Tamil Nadu are concerned, the 32-year-old feels they just have to keep repeating the things they do right and the results will come along. "I just feel at the end of the day it's just that results have not gone our way. If you see the last season, four or five batters scored more than 500 runs, and a couple of bowlers got 25-30 wickets, so the result has not gone our way, but we have done something right. We should definitely keep doing it. It is not going to happen overnight. If we do well in one match, we can't start thinking about qualification, it is a long process. Eventually, you will reach there, it is just a matter of one game at a time," he signed off.