Learnt life lessons from L Balaji and Badrinath, reveals Vijay Shankar

06/07/2020

Vijay Shankar has revealed that he learnt life lessons at a very young age from the duo of Subramaniam Badrinath and Lakshimpathy Balaji, something the all-rounder believes has helped him in his career. Shankar attested that these lessons helped him cope with the Nidahas Trophy embarrassment.

Despite not getting the desired results as a team, the Tamil Nadu side in the 2000s produced some of the finest and best cricketers in the country, many of whom went on to eventually represent the Indian national side. Amongst them were Subramaniam Badrinath and Laskhmipathy Balaji, who created an identity for themselves with relentless, eye-catching performances, be it in the IPL or in Ranji Trophy. Unfortunately, though, the international career of neither men took off, with Balaji being marred by injuries and Badrinath finding himself to be the right man at the wrong time.

Both the players have, however, influenced an immeasurable number of cricketers in the course of their careers and, as revealed by himself, one among the zillion cricketers is all-rounder Vijay Shankar. The fellow Tamil Nadu lad who made his international debut in 2018 revealed how he, at a very young age, learned valuable lessons from the duo of Balaji and Badrinath.

“I learnt two big lessons at an early stage from Badri and Bala (L Balaji). Badri said to me – ‘if you’re good enough no one can stop you from playing at the highest level’. And Bala told me – ‘life is all about handling embarrassments.’ While it sounded something big at that time but when I started experiencing it, I understood it really well,” Shankar said during the show Mind Masters by MFORE on Star Sports 1.

Shankar did catapult to fame pretty early on in his career, but for the wrong reasons, as a scratchy knock from the all-rounder in the Nidahas Trophy final versus Bangladesh in 2018 almost ended up costing team India the game. Eventually, though, a heroic knock from another Tamil Nadu star, Dinesh Karthik, helped India get over the line.

Reflecting on that experience, Shankar labelled the Nidahas Trophy Final an ‘embarrassing’ experience but stated that the advice of Balaji and Badrinath helped him mentally get over the disappointment.

“After Nidahas trophy, it was embarrassing for me. While overcoming these embarrassments, I remembered these lessons shared by them and it helped.”

Shankar’s last appearance in an Indian jersey came in the 2019 World Cup versus the Windies, a game where he scored 14 runs with the bat.