Former India opener Murali Vijay has made some honest admissions about his career in the national team. Having last played for India in 2018, Vijay found his opportunities frozen. Having opened up with Virender Sehwag in India’s Test team for a fair amount of time, Vijay has now opened up about the indifferent treatment he received, especially in terms of backing from the team management. Vijay claimed that he could’ve also tried a few things had the team management backed him the way they supported Sehwag.
In a chat with WV Raman on Sportstar, Vijay said: “Consciously, I didn’t get the freedom of Virender Sehwag to be honest. Whatever Sehwag got in his life, I didn’t. If I could have got that kind of backing and open-spreaded talks, I could have also tried. The honest thing is the team’s backing and how you can contribute to the team in the international level. It’s a high-level competition and you don’t have many chances to experiment in different ways.”
Vijay also opened up about the experience of playing with Sehwag. The veteran batter said that he found it hard to control his instincts on seeing Sehwag bat the way he did.
“When Sehwag was there, I felt controlling my instincts and playing was hard but to see him go through that kind of freedom was something spectacular.
“Only he could have done that. Nobody else I feel could have played like Sehwag. What he did for Indian cricket was amazing. Different… he is something else that I have seen visually. I had the privilege to interact with him. It was so simple. He kept his mantra so simple – See the ball and hit. He was in that mode; singing songs to 145-150 kph bowlers. You are experiencing something else. It’s not normal,” he further added.
Having put the ‘BCCI chapter’ to an end, Vijay is now looking for opportunities abroad.
