It was the November of 2008 and a young M Vijay was playing the season's Ranji Trophy opener against Maharashtra at Nashik. Over a period of two days, Vijay was involved in a 462-run opening wicket partnership with Abhinav Mukund when the call came that he had to join the Indian team in Nagpur for the final Test of the series against Australia because Gautam Gambhir had been banned.
It was a controversial selection, Wasim Jaffer was still very much in the mix, but the then chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth went on instinct and decided to blood in a youngster whom he had seen from close quarters. And from that Nagpur Test, where MS Dhoni officially took over as India's Test captain and Sourav Ganguly played his last international game, started a topsy-turvy international career that lasted for 10 years.
On Monday, after being left in the cold for the last five years, Vijay officially brought the curtains down on his international career. "I am excited to announce that I will be exploring new opportunities in the world of cricket and the business side of it, where I will also continue to participate in the sport that I love and challenge myself in new and different environments," the 38-year-old Vijay said in a statement. "I believe this is the next step in my journey as a cricketer and I look forward to the new chapter in my life."
Even though in the statement, he said that he was retiring only from international cricket, he may have played his last match as a domestic cricketer as well. Barring Tamil Nadu Premier League, he hasn't played much of competitive cricket of late and one understands that he was a little unhappy that the TN management didn't consider him for white-ball cricket at the beginning of the season. But Vijay hadn't been playing club cricket either and there wasn't much of an opportunity for the selectors to give him a go.
WV Raman, who was the Tamil Nadu coach when Vijay was starting off, felt that the right-hander was one of the most mentally strong guys he has ever seen. Vijay had a tumultuous personal life and was often a bit misunderstood, but there was an element of steel and calmness in him that made his teammates name him Monk.
"He could deal with adversities and on the technical side, he was one of those players who could make the extra bounce generated by the pacers from the pitch his friend. That is probably one of the reasons why he batted so well in 2013 in South Africa or a year later in Australia," Raman told TOI.
The 97 in Durban in 2013 and the 99 in Adelaide in 2014 in Australia didn't figure in his list of 12 Test centuries, but those who saw those from close quarters would know that here was a Test opener who had really made the spot his own. "Opening the batting is a tough job but Vijay showed that he could do with an element of class and grace. He was stylish, easy on the eye and at the same time had a great idea of where is off-stump is — hallmarks of a good opener," Raman said.
There was a point in time though in the early 2010s when he was going great guns for Chennai Super Kings that his batting in the longer version suffered a bit. Raman worked with him and asked him to sort his priorities out. "He was getting out playing loose shots, but it didn't need much convincing that his area of strength is red ball cricket. He made the necessary adjustments and became such a fine player in Tests," the former India opener added.
Vijay, after a brilliant few years in Tests, suddenly found the going tough in England in 2018, and was sent back from the tour midway. That was a blow from which he didn't quite recover and even though he played two Tests in Australia later that year, found himself out of the team after that tour.
In a recent interview he said that players in their 30s are often treated as 80-year-olds. While it was an expression of frustration for not getting another chance, the fact remains that Vijay didn't do much in the last four years to make the selectors think of him ahead of the likes of Shubhman Gill, KL Rahul or Rohit Sharma.
"Probably he could have piled up a lot more runs in domestic cricket, but that's nitpicking. We should celebrate the superb career that Vijay had...Not for nothing, he played 61 Tests," Raman summed it up.
