Murali Vijay says Test century in England is a dream come true

Murali Vijay is delighted with his 1st overseas Test century

Murali Vijay scored his 1st Test century outside India yesterday against England on day one of the 1st Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. He has had to wait till his 23rd Test to do so, but now that he has, it’s hopefully the first of many. You are judged by your record in countries like England, Australia and South Africa when you’re a batsman from the sub-continent, and it’s no different for Vijay.

The right-handed opener from Tamil Nadu made his debut for India against Australia in 2008, and ever since then his talent to play at the top level has been evident. He possesses a relatively sound technique and also has the patience required to bat long periods. He has been a consistently heavy scorer for his state side in the Ranji Trophy, which is what catapulted him into the reckoning for the national team.

Away record was previously poor

Despite all those attributes, a Test average of 38.78 from 23 Tests is underwhelming for an opening batsman of his class. The reason for his moderate record has simply been his ineptitude away from home. His stats on home soil and away from home provide a stark contrast: while Vijay averages a healthy 51.7 from his 11 Tests at home, his average drops down to a paltry 27.8 in his 12 away Tests.

But his away record might be about to markedly improve, if we are to go by the last few months. There were a few positive signs from the 4 Tests that Vijay played Vijay played in South Africa and New Zealand during the winter. While there is nothing positive about scoring a total of just 196 runs from those 4 Tests at an average of 24.5 as he did, he showed a greater willingness to leave the ball outside off-stump than he had done so earlier in his career.

He was also desperately unlucky to miss out on a hundred in South Africa against a very good pace attack, when he was dismissed caught down the leg side for 97. Despite not scoring the runs he would’ve liked in both those countries, what he did do was spend a lot of time at the crease. It’d have been easy to have been downbeat after those two series, but he has continued working hard on his batting and it looks to have paid off.

“At the end of the day, I didn’t do well and runs were not on the board,” he said referring to his lack of runs in South Africa and New Zealand. “That’s how I look at it and I move forward. I also got some good balls, but I can’t think over it too much and I just need to get rid of those thoughts. I just want to cash in on this chance I’ve got in England, as this is a big series. I have dreamt of this when I was a kid, so obviously it’s a happy feeling for me.”

Pitch isn’t as easy as it looks

Critics will argue that the Trent Bridge surface, the venue of his 1st overseas hundred, was devoid of any pace and bounce and resembled a sub-continent surface, thereby undermining the opener’s achievement. But Vijay wouldn’t care one bit.

“It’s a good wicket and the ball is coming nicely on to the bat,” he said. “I don’t know about days two and three, and a lot of people have told me that overcast conditions can change the nature of the pitch a bit. Hopefully, when we bowl, we can get some help.

“After lunch, the ball was reversing a bit, and there was wind too. Anderson and Broad got the ball to move around a bit, and got a couple of wickets. So we needed to be a bit careful at that time.”

Vijay also expressed his frustration at not capitalizing on some of the starts that he has got in recent times. He said that his game plan during the England series is going to be to be as patient as possible rather than being on the lookout for boundaries.

“Once set, I just need to convert those starts, rather than playing some flashy shots, and I have got out a couple of times playing them,” said Vijay. “Today also, the game plan was no different as I looked to spend time at crease and then capitalize on it.

“It’s a five-day game, so there’s no need to get bogged down. You can play a lot of balls and bail the team out. That’s my plan.”