Vijay Shankar says focus on present has changed him

It is the winter of 2017. Vijay Shankar’s maiden stint with the Indian team has seen him warm the bench. As his teammates are hounded by selfie seekers, he is standing aloof at the Taj Mahal hotel in Delhi. Apart from the team kit, there is nothing to show he is one of the Men in Blue. A middle-aged man, who couldn’t get to click a picture with some of the stars, approaches Vijay and he obliges. Minutes later, the man returns, this time with an embarrassing smile, asking, “Sorry, I haven’t seen you play. Are you a cricketer? What’s your name?” Vijay introduces himself, with a boy-next-door smile. “I’m yet to make my debut. It’s alright, if you don’t know me.”

Three months have gone. Vijay is now having what he calls a “nightmare” at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, in the Nidahas Trophy final against Bangladesh. Sent in to bat ahead of Dinesh Karthik, he is so consumed by pressure and the big stage that he finds it difficult to put bat on ball against Mustafizur Rahman. He wouldn’t sleep properly for 10 nights after that match, which India eventually won.
For nearly two days he was the target of the troll army on Twitter and even had abuses hurled at him. He read them all and laughed, believing that he was destined for better days.

But it affected him more than he had thought. With friends and family ensuring he wasn’t left alone, “because I would start thinking again”, Vijay made a resolution. “Never, ever put more pressure on yourself. I realised, I need to work even harder if I aspired to play regularly for India. I knew where I made a mistake. So I started to remain in the present, not think about the past or future. Everyday I designed it in a way that I would focus solely on what I do, no matter what. If it’s practice, I’ll be focussed on it, if it’s about spending time with friends, then let me have my time without thinking about cricket. I don’t complicate things anymore.”

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Though he comes from a family which can spend on his game (he has a practice facility with artificial turf, floodlights and bowling machine on his terrace), not everything has come easy. A few years back, Vijay was close to being dropped from the Tamil Nadu side before then state coach WV Raman intervened and pleaded to the selectors to give him one more chance. Vijay responded with a match-winning knock and six months later ended up with India A, where he was quick to impress coach Rahul Dravid.

Last October, with Hardik Pandya injured, Vijay was looking forward to another shot at the India cap, only to read in newspapers that “there is no all-rounder to replace Pandya.” He went to New Zealand with India A and had an outstanding series with the bat. As Pandya was taking his return flight to India following a controversy and Vijay was named his replacement, he was sleeping at his residence in Madipakkam only to be waken up by a scribe at around 10 pm.

“I was not really expecting a call-up, because I had stopped expecting. I’d changed the way I went about certain things. I spent a lot of time with my coach Balaji with whom I’ve been working for the last 13 years. We worked on a few things and I added more dimensions to my batting. My brother was also of great help during that phase. From Nidahas Trophy, I learnt to work without expecting anything in return. I was not thinking about India or anything else. I just wanted to improve as a player and do the right things. When that happens, everything falls in place. Balaji sir says even now, I’ve unlocked only 40 per cent of my full potential, and need to work more. I have a few sessions lined up starting Wednesday.”

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The trips to Australia and New Zealand might have been unexpected, but this time when Vijay joined the team, by his own admission and that of others, there was a difference. His preparation and approach to training won him fans in the team, so much so that even the support staff seemed to have been surprised by the manner in which he fixed the areas he was told to. He would be tested right through the tour by the coaches, the biggest of them all coming in the fifth ODI, when after being told that he was slotted to bat at No 7, he was asked to pad up and take guard with India at 18/4. “When Dhoni walked in, they came and told me to be ready. I was not thinking about anything. Suddenly, I was told to go in and once I went in, had to play the situation. Though I played a couple of other knocks, that 45 gave me confidence that I can do it. That was the match where I felt I truly played my own game. And in T20s, I was again not expecting to bat at No 3. I don’t get to do it for TN and don’t even remember the last time I played there.”

Without the question even popping up, Vijay himself brings up the second T20, where he managed only 14. He got a earful from his personal coach, which was in complete contrast to Shastri & Co, who told him just to learn from the situation. “How often will a guy like me get a chance to finish a match for India? It was already hurting me and then my coach gave me some harsh lessons.”
What has also been striking is how he was not called to bowl in the T20s. Bowling coach Bharathi Arun believes he can be relied upon to bowl 5-6 overs in a game and has told him the areas he needs to work on. “In the four matches I bowled, let me admit there were nerves. I was just looking to concentrate on landing the ball on the right areas. Because of that I was not able to express myself and bowl with the sort of freedom I usually get.”

There are already talks of him getting a World Cup berth, which he is aware thanks to his brother who shares the articles on him via social media. “But I read them and move on.” He pauses and adds, “Brother, World Cup and all is still far for me. Look at me, there is still a lot to do before I even dream of it. I don’t even know if I will get a chance in the Australia series. Then I need to be among the runs in the IPL. Ivlo irukku (so much to do), so don’t get where these talks of World Cup come from.”
Needless to stay, he is staying in the present. Past tense. Future perfect? Let’s see.