Despite scoring a century in the opening Test match of the series at Rajkot, Indian opener Murali Vijay was, by his own admission, disappointed by his failures in the next two matches, especially in the manner of his dismissals when England made him throw his wicket away with the short ball strategy.
However, the 32-year-old came back strongly in the ongoing Mumbai Test and along with Virat Kohli, has put India in command of the fourth Test with a lead which stands now in excess of 100.
Revealing his thoughts after bringing up the century, Vijay said that the eight-day break between the third and fourth Test had helped him regain his composure and approach the innings backing his basic instincts.
“I did think about it (short balls) because I was playing at the balls I should be leaving generally,” Vijay said. “There are lots of other factors to it. I don’t want to reveal them. But yeah, the definitive gameplan is to back my core game, believe in it and come back fresh, and to play this Test match the way I wanted to play.”
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“The break helped me,” he added. “And it helped everybody, I guess, to go and rethink and come back better. (This innings) is special because I started off well in the series and then a couple of matches I couldn’t play the way I wanted to play. I was getting out too early. I just came out with a much clearer mindset in this game. And i just wanted to back my basic instinct and play.”
The English spinners, especially Adil Rashid felt the heat of Vijay’s attacking strokeplay as skipper Alastair Cook was forced to take him out of the attack as the Chennai lad went after Rashid right from the word go.
“Actually, my gameplan is to attack the spinners because I don’t want them to settle in one particular area where they find it comfortable,” Vijay said. “I just wanted to use my feet and use the depth of the crease, and play according to my gameplan. It came out pretty well, I guess.”
Pretty well indeed as India looks set to wrap up the five-match series before the final Test at Chennai with skipper Kohli helping build on Vijay’s innings in what is one of his finest Test knocks.
“Definitely (India is in control of this match), because any lead is gold in this wicket,” he said. “During tea time, we just thought get close to their target, but the way Virat Kohli and Jayant Yadav are batting, I think we are in a pretty good position.”
