The all-rounder from Tamil Nadu, Vijay Shankar, who was recently called in as the replacement for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, admitted that he is not looking far ahead and is not in the team to compete with team India’s prime all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
“Pandya has done well so far and his rise has been amazing. I am not thinking about any sort of competition. It’s not about competing with anyone but improving on a personal front and trying to cement a place in the starting XI,” Vijay was heard saying to the media in a telephonic interview.
Talking about how he got the news of the India call-up, Shankar stated the MSK Prasad, chief of the selection committee called to say that I will get an official mail soon.
“I got a call from MSK Prasad sir (chairman of the selectors). He said: ‘You will get an official mail soon.’ Till I got the mail, I was anxious as it was hard for me to believe. I was waiting for the mail, which landed around 9 p.m. I was over the moon then and so was my family,” the 26-year-old all-rounder mentioned.
Vijay, who has been regular in the India A team under the head coach Rahul Dravid for quite some time now elaborated that he was extremely happy hearing the news of getting selected. He further admitted that it’s a dream come true moment for him.
Vijay has a phenomenal record in the first class cricket having scored five hundred and ten fifties with an average of 49.14. When asked about whom he is looking forward to in the Indian team, he didn’t want to single out any cricketer.
“I look up to everyone in this team and I am not being diplomatic about it, trust me. I played with Ashwin and Murali Vijay in Tamil Nadu team. There will be times when the team attacks and times when they hold themselves back, I will be looking at those things minutely. I always put myself in the captain’s shoes. So while observing those things, I will look to learn from every single player in the team,” Vijay concluded.