My gameplan was to attack the English spinners, says Murali Vijay

12/11/2016

Murali Vijay has revealed that he didn’t want the English spinners to stick to a particular area on the pitch. Vijay also credited his understanding with Cheteshwar Pujara for his success and said that the break between the Tests came as a boon for him giving him some time for introspection.

The one best thing that came into the fore in the second day of the fourth Test between India and England, was the supreme ability of Murali Vijay and Virat Kohli to negate the effect of spinners on turning tracks. At times, when the ball started turning viciously, Vijay showed remarkable feet movement to tackle all those and according to the Tamil Nadu opener, it was the part of his gameplan as he scored a superb knock of 136 runs to help India post a huge total.

Vijay said in the post-match press confernece, "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. I just wanted to use my feet and use the depth of the crease and play according to my game plan. It came out pretty well, I guess."

Vijay scored a flawless century in the first Test at Rajkot but failed to replicate that success in the next two Tests at Vizag and Mohali scoring just 35 runs across four innings. But after a week-long break, he came back with a refreshing mindset to counter his weakness against the short-ball.

The Indian opener said, "I did think about it [short balls] because I was playing at the balls I should be leaving generally. There are a lot of other factors to it. I don't want to reveal them. But yeah, the definite 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."

"The break helped me. And it helped everybody, I guess, to go and rethink and come back better."

Despite the wicket at Wankhede gradually becoming slower, Vijay insisted that it is a good wicket to play.

“I think it’s a very true wicket for the Test format because everybody had to work on their game plans. You’ve got to be very clear in your mindset to deliver. It was a fantastic wicket to play this game,” the 32-year old said.

Praising Pujara, with whom he forged yet another century partnership for the second wicket, Vijay said, “One good thing is we all understand each other’s game very well, the top four at least. We know exactly what to do in the middle. So whatever the situation in front of us, we just need to stick to our game plan and work in pairs.”

On being asked, whether India are in control of the game now, Vijay said, "Definitely. Because any lead is gold on this wicket. During tea time, we just thought get close to their target, but the way Virat and Jayant Yadav are batting, I think we are in a pretty good position."

My gameplan was to attack the English spinners, says Murali Vijay

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