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End of the road for struggling Murali Vijay?

Vijay’s record of service marks him down as one of the most significant Indian openers ever, but an average of 16.53 outside of Asia since the start of 2015 has seen him fall.

Murali Vijay Pair Lord's

Murali Vijay bagged a pair in his last Test at Lord's. @Getty

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Murali Vijay has been dropped from India’s squad for the remaining Tests against England at Southampton and The Oval. This is the first time in a Test career spanning 59 Tests that the Tamil Nadu opener, aged 34, has been axed from India’s Test squad.

Vijay’s record of service in Asia and overseas marks him down as one of the most significant Indian openers ever. He is, statistically, India’s fourth most successful Test opener with 3831 runs at 40.32, with 12 hundreds and 15 fifties. Only two India openers have scored more centuries: Sunil Gavaskar (33) and Virender Sehwag (22). No other opener has made more than Navjot Singh Sidhu’s eight Test centuries.

For someone of his reputation, experience and age, you could expect some allowance for a run of poor form. It happens to all cricketers. The second the slightest doubt seeps in, the edge inevitably goes. This is an Indian team that has made some odd selections since Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri teamed up as captain and coach, but their mantra of picking players based on current form has been maintained throughout.

And here, it has been applied to Vijay who, frankly, has looked a pale imitation of the batsman with runs across the globe. He has been India’s second poorest batsman of the series. Four innings, 26 runs, highest score 20, average of 6.50. Only Dinesh Karthik, with 21 runs in as many innings and an average of 5.25, has worse numbers – and he won’t play again this tour.

During the first Test at Edgbaston, Vijay made 20 and 6 – lbw to left-arm quick Sam Curran in the first innings and lbw to Stuart Broad when not offering a shot. At Lord’s, his Test career hit a nadir. He was out for zero in both innings, both times to James Anderson, which raised questions about his downfall as a Test opener, and rightfully so.

Murali Vijay Australia
On the last tour of Australia in 2014-15, Vijay scored 482 runs in four Tests. @Getty

Vijay’s pair at Lord’s lowered his batting average in Tests outside of Asia since the beginning of 2015 to 16.53, a stark comparison to the tours of South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia in 2013 and 2014 when he made 1000 runs in 12 Tests at an average of 41.66, with two centuries and six fifties. What ails the man who has Test centuries at Trent Bridge and Brisbane and nineties at Durban, Lord’s and Adelaide?

Is it age slowing the reflexes? Is it a creaking body – he has been sidelined with wrist and back problems before – struggling to keep up with the demands of Test cricket in tough conditions? Is it a diet of docile tracks in India? Is it insecurity about his place in the team? We may never know, but the fact is that Vijay is going through a rut and is fodder for quick bowlers like Anderson and Broad on pitches where each delivery is a challenge.

His reflexes appear to have dimmed. Those trademark drives, back-foot defensives and leaves have disappeared, followed closely by the timing. The wrists didn’t seem to coordinate with the bat at Lord’s, where in the second innings he shaped to whip the ball to mid-on but was bowled when it straightened.

Critically, as VVS Laxman pointed out during the second Test, Vijay’s technique was brutally exposed by Anderson. Laxman’s observation was astute – Vijay does not play across the line or get his wrists into play so early in an innings. Instead, he plays straight. His attempt to manufacture a shot in the first over of a Test innings was perhaps the biggest indication of how he has fallen as a Test opener overseas.

Vijay’s hallmark as a successful Test opener overseas was that he was defensive, which saw him succeed in England, Australia and South Africa. He was content to leave deliveries at the start of Test matches and virtually shunned the expansive drives against the new ball, which, allied with his zen-like approach to batting, helped India on many occasions, never mind that they rarely won overseas.

He had problems with his front foot movement, particularly when the ball was swinging in, but which Indian batsman has not had such issues who’s last name was not Tendulkar, Dravid or Laxman?

This is the man, let us not forget, who in the last two years scored six Test centuries at home: 126 and 136 against England, 108 against Bangladesh, 128 and 155 in successive Tests versus Sri Lanka and 105 in Afghanistan’s debut Test. You can only be expected to score in the matches you are given, so in that regard Vijay did his job well. The issue, of course, is that against quality attacks such as Australia, even at home, he scored 10, 2, 82, 11 and 8. In South Africa in January, he made 1, 13, 46, 8 and 25. Now in England, 20, 6, 0 and 0.

Murali Vijay South Africa
Vijay averaged 17 in three Tests in South Africa this year. @Getty

India’s next Test assignment is three Test matches against West Indies at home in October, but the big picture is four Tests in Australia starting December 6. On the last tour of Australia in 2014-15, Vijay scored 482 runs in four Tests with scores of 53 and 99 in Adelaide, 144 and 127 in Brisbane, 68 and 11 in Melbourne and 0 and 80 in Sydney. But that was four years ago, and like this tour of England has shown, the past matters for nothing when you can’t score in the current phase. Vijay, during India’s tour of England in 2014, became the fifth Indian batsman to scored 400 runs in a series on English soil.

This time, he has averaged 6.50 in four innings.

On that tour, Kohli was at his worst as a Test batsman, scoring 134 runs in 10 innings. On this tour, he has 440 runs at an average of 73. 33, with scores of 149, 51, 23, 17, 97 and 103. A strong reminder, once again, that current form matters, not past success.

Hardly any Indian batsman at the age of 34 and beyond have been recalled to the Test team. Gautam Gambhir was the last one, also an opener, at the age of 36 having not played international cricket in two years. But that was for a series against New Zealand at home, when KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan were injured.

The road ahead will be very difficult. It may not entirely be up to Vijay and his run-scoring abilities in domestic cricket if he gets another shot at Test cricket.

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