Can Vijay Resurrect His Drowning Test Career?

Vijay had a start and stop Test career. The start of his career coincided with the peak of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir opening partnership...

- Harshit Anand

Once upon a time, Murali Vijay was the real deal at the top of the order. From December 2013 to January 2015, India played all their Test cricket away from home - in tough conditions of South Africa, New Zealand, England, and Australia.

Murali Vijay faced the most balls, scored the second-most runs, and was one of only three, barring Virat and Rahane to average more than 40 during that tough phase. He was one of three pillars of Indian Test batting.

Vijay had a start and stop Test career. The start of his career coincided with the peak of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir opening partnership. It was 2013 Australia series when Vijay again got a chance to prove himself. By that time, the prolific pair of Gambhir-Sehwag was a wrecked ship.

Vijay scored back-to-back 150s against Australia and made the opening place his own. For the next four years, he made a name for himself with his exploits away from home. He scored centuries in Nottingham, Brisbane, a 90 odd in Durban, 99 in Adelaide, and a crucial 95 in third innings of India’s historic 2014 Lord’s Test win.

As we can see, only Rogers had a better average than Vijay. Now, one thing that makes Vijay better than Rogers is that the Indian opener played in different countries like South Africa, New Zealand, England, Australia, and Bangladesh while Rogers played only in England, South Africa, and UAE, which means he hardly played in Asia and in UAE, he failed to make much of an impression.