‘Worked on leaving deliveries that I was playing’

Vijay hit a classy century against Bangladesh today, his 9th in Test cricket. The Tamil Nadu right hander spoke about the aspects of his game that he worked on. “See, I was playing at the balls that I should be leaving actually. I went back home and gave it a thought, came back to Mumbai (England Test in Mumbai) and played in the way I would play rather than playing for the situation which was putting too much pressure on me. These are small things, I rectified in the Mumbai Test,” Vijay said at the post match conference. 

“As I am playing one format of the game at the moment, I have got a decent idea about it and hang of it. I want to give as many consistent starts as possible for India. I am ready for my opportunity in other two formats as well,” reminding that he has not resigned to the fact that he is not considered for limited overs format. 

On his strategy for the day, Vijay said: “To be honest, I was feeling good about my game coming into the series, Hopefully, I can carry that forward. I just saw the new ball for four or five overs, read the wicket. Then I thought, I can kind of play my shots and it came out my way. It was two paced in morning session and in the afternoon it became slower.” 

The 32-year-old said the gameplan was to rely on instincts in certain situations and the team was well equipped to handle the short ball which Bangladesh slinger Kamrul Islam Rabbi dished out consistently. “In international cricket, you expect that (short ball). It’s more instinct rather than plan.” Vijay believed that it was purely because of Kohli, India scored nearly 20 runs extra with a whopping 63 runs coming off last 9 overs.

“It’s always a great sight to watch Virat play, the way he is playing at the moment. He has taken his game to a different level at the moment. End of the day, you can see we are 354 (356) and I thought 340 would be great. The 10-20 runs extra just happened because of him,” he added.