The 28-year-old, Vijay Shankar impressed with his batting performances on recent New Zealand tour. He is happy with his showing and further claimed it was a great learning curve for him.
Though India lost the T20I series in New Zealand after suffering a defeat in the final T20I of the series in Hamilton, Vijay played an impressive role. Chasing down the big target of 213 runs, the right-handed batsman came to bat at no.3 and played a 43-run knock off 28 balls. Talking about his experience in the India national cricket team, Vijay Shankar credited the team management for providing freedom.
According to Cricbuzz, he said after completion of the T20I series, “The freedom that we get from this management is the best thing for us. I think T20 is a game where you cannot be rigid in thinking, you need to be really flexible. As batters, we need to be really open and know the situation and be aware of what’s happening around. Whether it be the breeze or the bowlers, we think a lot about all these things.”
Vijay Shankar made his ODI debut on 18 January during the Melbourne ODI. Later, he played three ODIs in New Zealand tour before featuring in the T20I series in the same tour. In Wellington ODI, when India was in deep trouble on 18/4, Vijay Shankar played a rescue knock. While he put a 98-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Ambati Rayudu, he scored 45 runs off 64 balls.
In the three-match T20I series in New Zealand, Vijay Shankar scored 27 and 14 runs in the first two games before playing another great knock in the Hamilton T20I.
Talking about his performances in recent matches, the all-rounder said, “The matches that I’ve played so far I did reasonably well. I could have done a lot better, but as I said earlier, it’s great learning for me, and I’m just looking to get better every day.”
Vijay Shankar was surprised to see his batting order promotion
The pace-bowling all-rounder bowled in the ODI matches, but his bowling service didn’t require in the T20I series. Bowling 16 overs in his ODI career, the right-arm medium bowler hasn’t opened his wicket account yet.
In his eight T20I matches, Vijay Shankar has picked up three wickets, and all were during the 2018 Nidahas Trophy. However, he is always ready to bowl for the national team.
In the recent T20I series in New Zealand, Vijay Shankar batted in top-order. Twice in the series, he came to bat at the no.3 position. Meanwhile, he was surprised to see his promotion to the batting order, but he was also ready to accept that.
He said, “If they ask me to bowl I have to be ready for that and with my batting, it was a big surprise when they asked me to bat number three in the first game. That’s a good thing for me, and I think I did reasonably well in that. For me it is about playing the situation. If I can play the situation and win matches for my team then that will be the best thing for me.”
Admires on MS Dhoni
Vijay Shankar also feels happy to play with MS Dhoni. He enjoys the former Indian skipper’s batting and tries to learn a lot.
Talking about MS Dhoni, Vijay Shankar said, “Someone like him (Dhoni), everyone will look up to him. He’s a legend and he’s won so many matches for his country, and even the last couple of games we batted, for someone like me, I enjoy watching that and I try to learn a lot from watching each and every player in our team. He has done a lot for the team. I see how he chases the total, everything is great learning for me.”
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu all-rounder has impressed the national selectors with his recent performances. Recently, the chief selector, MSK Prasad has revealed the all-rounder is in contention for the upcoming World Cup in England.