Vijay Shankar opens up on handling criticism from fans

Tamil Nadu’s star all-rounder Vijay Shankar regained his batting form after registering his fifth first-class ton against Mumbai in the recently concluded Ranji Trophy clash. However, the cricketer opened up about the backlash he faced during a lean patch for the national team.

Vijay Shankar made the headlines after he was included in India’s ODI World Cup squad in 2019. He even managed to impress in his first outing of the tournament against Pakistan. However, things went awry for the all-rounder in the upcoming matches against Afghanistan and the West Indies. His misery was further compounded when he suffered a toe injury, ruling him out for the remainder of the competition.

He has not featured for the national team since then and has largely been on the periphery due to the emergence of Hardik Pandya. A shoulder injury last year saw him miss the action for nearly seven months, and the Tamil Nadu man opened up about the criticism following his disappointing stint with the national team. He is more focused on his own performance this time around and is not paying attention to the naysayers.

“I have seen things happening to MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and all the top players… people don’t even spare them. People appreciate them when things are going fine, but come hard at them in tough times. People who go through it know how difficult it is. I started thinking about what best I could do and not think about other stuff,” Vijay Shankar said in an interview with Sportstar.

We have not been able to get that final thing: Shankar

Tamil Nadu has failed to register an outright win this season and they had to rely upon their experienced batter to bail them out from a precarious position against Mumbai. They will be facing Maharashtra in their next encounter, and the 31-year-old is positive about his team’s chances in the upcoming fixtures.

“We have played really well so far and all games have gone till the mandatory overs. So, we played some really good cricket, and we did things correctly, but it’s just that, we have not been able to get that final thing. Maybe, in the next three games, we can do it and you never know, we might qualify and do well as a team,” he added.