Then came the Australia series in 2010. Vijay was not picked for the first Test of the series, but in the second, he made full use of the chance he got slamming his maiden Test century. He got a full Test series against West Indies in 2011, but fared miserably, with just 72 runs in six innings, reaching double figures only twice. He fell out of favour with the selectors as a result of that terrible tour of the Caribbean, for a player who had made his first class debut in 2006, Vijay’s career looked stuck in a rut, with no hope of progress.
After about two years in the wilderness, he got a chance to play another Test in the home series against Australia in 2013. India were smarting from a humiliating home loss to England and were looking to make amends, and a solid start was key to their prospects against Michael Clarke’s men.
The four-Test series against Australia starting on 23 February would give him an opportunity to enhance his reputation as one of the pillars of the Indian batting. One of the chinks in the armour of Kohli’s rampaging team has been the false starts that they have been getting with alarming regularity. Vijay have done as well as he could but somehow the Indian openers have not been stringing together worthwhile partnerships. The last time that the Indian openers pieced together a century stand before the Chennai Test against England in December was in the one-off Test against Bangladesh, back in 2015.
Watch here,
(Sourced from agencies, feature image courtesy:oneindia.com)
