Murali Vijay

Murali Vijay (born 1 April 1984) is a former Indian international cricketer. He is a right-handed opening batter and an occasional right-arm off break bowler. He had represented the Indian cricket team and played for Tamil Nadu in domestic first-class cricket. Vijay was a member of the Indian team that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. He has also played for Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

In 2001, Vijay started playing club cricket in Chennai before he was selected in the Tamil Nadu under-22 cricket team. He made his first-class debut for the Tamil Nadu in 2006 and was amongst the top run-scorers in the 2006–07 Ranji Trophy, which was his maiden first-class tournament. In 2008, he was called up to the South Zone cricket team and later India A. He made his test debut in November 2008 after the team's regular opener Gautam Gambhir was banned for one match by the ICC.

Vijay played mainly test cricket for India and scored in 3982 runs in 61 matches at an average of over 38. He retired from all forms of international cricket in January 2023.

Early career
Vijay was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu. He started playing club cricket at the age of 17 in Chennai representing Alwarpet CC in 2003. He was then selected for the Tamil Nadu under-22 squad for the C. K. Nayudu Trophy which Tamil Nadu won with Vijay opening the innings and averaging 26.45 in 6 matches. He was again selected again in the under-22 squad for the 2005-06 CK Nayudu Trophy and averaged 26.50 in 3 matches. Vijay was selected in the Tamil Nadu squad for the Ranji One-day Trophy in February 2006. He made his senior cricket debut in the last group fixture of the tournament against Karnataka on 16 February and scored 17 runs. He scored 38 in the quarterfinal loss to Railways.

Vijay made his first class debut for Tamil Nadu during the 2006-07 Ranji Trophy. He scored a fifty in his first-class debut against Delhi. He accumulated a total of 628 runs at an average of more than 52, including two hundreds and finished as the third highest run-getter of the tournament in his debut first-class season. He continued his good form in the 2006-07 Ranji One-day Trophy by scoring 277 runs in 7 matches at an average of 39.57 with a high-score of 112.

Vijay played in all seven matches of Tamil Nadu in the 2007-08 Ranji Trophy and scored 582 runs at an average of 58.2 with two hundreds including a high-score of 230* against Saurashtra. After the conclusion of Ranji Trophy, he was selected in the South Zone squad for the 2007-08 Duleep Trophy. In the first match against North Zone, he scored a duck and 39 runs in two innings. In the second game against East Zone, he scored 46 and registered a duck in the second innings while opening the batting. In the Vijay Hazare Trophy that followed, Vijay played seven matches in which scored back-to-back hundreds against Hyderabad and Andhra.

In September 2008, Vijay was picked in the India A team to play against the touring New Zealand A team in two 4-day matches. He made 45 and 59 in the first match, helping India A win by 129 runs. He opened the innings and scored 98 runs in the second match, in which India lost. In October 2008, Vijay was named in the India Red team for the Challenger Trophy and finished second among highest run-scorers of the tournament with 164 runs from 3 matches at an average of 54.66.

Test debut
In November 2008, Vijay made his Test debut against Australia in the fourth and final test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Nagpur. He was selected for the match after regular opener Gautam Gambhir received a one-Test ban for elbowing Shane Watson in the previous match of the same series. Vijay was playing in a Ranji trophy match at the time and was called mid-way to make his test debut. Vijay partnered Virender Sehwag to open the innings and made 33 and 41, contributing to opening stands of 98 and 116 respectively. He also effected the run out of Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey during Australia's innings. He caught Brett Lee from the bowling of Harbhajan Singh to take his first catch in test cricket.

Following his performance in his debut test, Vijay was selected for the Indian ODI squad for the first three matches against the touring England team in November 2008. He did not get to the playing eleven and was dropped after the first three matches upon the return of Sachin Tendulkar.

In December 2009, Vijay played the third and final Test against Sri Lanka at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Vijay put on a 221 run partnership for the first wicket with Sehwag and scored 87 runs in the first innings with Indian winning to complete an innings victory. Vijay was selected for the Bangladesh tour in January 2010 as a reserve batsman and was selected in the playing eleven for the second test after V. V. S. Laxman got injured. Vijay scored 30 runs in the second test at Mirpur. He was selected for the two test home series against South Africa after Rahul Dravid was injured.

ODI debut and test regular
Vijay made his ODI debut in the third and final match against South Africa at Ahmedabad on 27 February 2010 and scored 25 runs off 16 balls. He made his full series debut during a tri-nations tournament in Zimbabwe where he played three matches and scored 46 runs. Vijay was selected in the Indian squad for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20. Vijay fared poorly scoring just 57 runs in four matches averaging below 15.

Vijay was selected as the reserve opener for away series against Sri Lanka in August 2010 and played two test matches scoring 99 runs. In October 2010, he scored his maiden test century when he scored 139 runs during the second test match of Australia's tour of India at Bangalore. Vijay was selected in the ODI team for New Zealand's tour of India and India's tour of South Africa but scored only 100 runs across six matches. He played three matches during India's tour of West Indies in June 2011 and scored only 72 runs.

Middle years: comeback and test regular
Following poor returns, Vijay was not selected to play for India till February 2013 when he was re-called to the side for the home series against Australia. He made back to back centuries in the second and third tests of the series and finished as the highest scorer of the series with 430 runs including two centuries. Vijay was part of the Indian squad that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy but did not play a single match in the series. He played in an ODI match again only in July 2013 in the tri-series against West Indies and Sri Lanka scoring 57 runs across two innings.

Vijay became a regular in the Indian test team and played consecutive away series against South Africa and New Zealand. He played all five tests during the tour of England in July 2014 and was the top scorer for India with 402 runs. In December 2014, When India toured Australia, Vijay scored 99 at the Adelaide Oval putting up a partnership of 185 with his skipper Virat Kohli while chasing 364 in the fourth innings. He scored 144 runs in the first innings of the second test at the Gabba, Brisbane which equaled the highest score by an Indian at the ground. He scored his sixth Test hundred in the one-match Test series against Bangladesh in June 2015. He played his last ODI in July 2015 against Zimbabwe. He played in the home test series against South Africa scoring 210 runs across four tests in 2015.

Later years and retirement
In the home series against England, Vijay scored 357 runs in five tests including two centuries in the Indian series victory. He later played three tests in the home series against Australia scoring 113 runs. In January 2018, he scored only 102 runs in three matches in the away series against South Africa. He scored his last test century in the lone test match against Afghanistan in June 2018. He played two tests in the Indian tour of England in August 2018 and scored only 26 runs with two ducks. Vijay played his last test match in the Indian tour of Australia at Perth scoring a duck and 20 runs.

IPL
Vijay made his debut in the Indian Premier League for his home town franchise, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2009. In the 2010 season, Vijay was amongst the top 5 run getters scoring 458 runs to lead CSK to a first title win. Vijay was the top run scorer in the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 with 294 runs leading CSK to the title. In the 2011 season, he scored 434 runs in the second consecutive title win for CSK. Vijay scored more than 300 runs in each of the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

In the 2014 IPL auction, he was picked up by Delhi Daredevils. He played two seasons for Delhi scoring 458 runs. In April 2016, he was picked up by Kings XI Punjab and replaced South African David Miller as the captain in the middle of the 2016 season. He was the top-scorer for the team with 453 runs.

He missed out the entire 2017 season due to a wrist injury and was released by Kings XI Punjab. In the 2018 IPL auction, he went back to Chennai Super Kings and played only six matches across the next three seasons. He finished with 2619 runs in 106 matches with two centuries in the IPL.

TNPL
Vijay captained the Kovai Kings side in the inaugural season of Tamil Nadu Premier League in 2016. In 2022, Vijay returned to play for Trichy Warriors and scored 224 runs in four matches.

Personal life
Vijay married Nikita Vanjara who was earlier married to Dinesh Karthik and the couple have two sons and one daughter.