India cricketer Vijay Shankar has picked out his outing in the Nidahas Trophy 2018 final as the life changing moment his budding international cricket career. The all-rounder was criticised for his 19-ball 17 in the final against Bangladesh as India was finally bailed out by Dinesh Karthik (29* off 8 balls), whose heroics in the last two overs took the team over the line.

Shankar said that he learnt a lot from the tough period, which arrived early in his career. The 29-year-old also stated that constant hatred on social media didn’t help his cause either.

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“I would definitely say the Nidahas Trophy was a life changing experience as a cricketer for me. It has been a year and everyone knows what happened and how difficult it was,” Shankar was quoted as saying by IANS.

“I would have easily attended 50 phone calls from all over India. The press people kept calling me and asked me the same question. Even the social media and all was a little difficult for me, I felt a little disappointed and took me some time to get out of that zone.

“But on the hindsight it taught me how to come out of that, learned how to handle situations. That incident showed me that one bad day isn’t the end of the world. It hasn’t happened only to me, has happened to many top players over the years.

“The best thing is that it happened on my first outing with the bat. I had bowled in the series, but that was the first time I went in to bat. I didn’t realise what happened right then, but that was a life lesson. It taught me to enjoy every moment as things as such episodes are temporary and I must focus on giving my 100 per cent,” he explained.

Shankar also revealed how the stalwarts of Indian cricket team have helped him express himself on the field. The all-rounder also stated that he tried to learn as much as possible from MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as to how to tackle different situations and keep things simple in the middle.

“First of all to be a part of the Indian team is something we all dream about when we start playing. I am someone who looks to imbibe things from Kohli, Mahi bhai or Rohit. I always believe in watching and learning from them. I have interacted with them to help me improve as a cricketer. They have told me that I am doing my job and the focus should be on keeping things simple,” Shankar said.

First Published: May 16, 2019 10:35 IST