Murali Vijay

Murali Vijay (born 1 April 1984) is a former Indian international cricketer. He was a right-handed opening batter and an occasional right-arm off break bowler. He has represented the Indian cricket team and played for Tamil Nadu in domestic first-class cricket. He was a member of the Indian team that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

In 2001, Vijay started playing cricket at the college level before he was selected for the Tamil Nadu under-22 cricket team. He made his first-class debut for 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 that played for the Duleep Trophy and later to the India A team that faced the touring New Zealand A team. He made his test debut against Australia in November 2008 when the team's regular opener Gautam Gambhir was not available. After a brief run in the team playing test cricket, he played his first ODI against the touring South African team in February 2010.

Vijay is noted as a good timer of the ball, who tends to play off his front foot and prefer his fore-arm wrists to play the shots. Known for his ability to bat for longer periods of time, he played mainly test cricket for India. After a start-stop initial few years, he became a regular in the Indian test teams after his call back to the team during the home series against Australia in 2013, in which he scored back to back centuries. He was one of the designated opening batsmen in the away tours, the highlight of which included the 2014 series against England in which he was the top run getter. Though he played his last ODI in 2015, he continued to play tests for India regularly. After a good series against England in early 2017, his returns diminished over the next two seasons and he played his last test in December 2018. He finished his career with 3982 runs in 61 test matches at an average of over 38 to go with the 331 runs he accumulated in 17 ODIs.

Vijay played for three franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 cricket tournament. He represented the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for seven season across two stints and in 2010 and 2011. He was also the top run scorer in the 2010 Champions League Twenty20, which was won by CSK. He had a short stint with Delhi Daredevils in 2014 before he was part of the Kings XI Punjab team for three seasons including the 2016 season as captain. He scored 2619 runs in 106 matches with two centuries in the IPL. He also captained the Kovai Kings team in the Tamil Nadu Premier League in 2016 and 2017. He announced his official retirement from all forms of cricket in January 2023. In a career spanning more than 20 years, he scored more than 13,000 runs in all forms of cricket.

Vijay was born on 1 April 1984 in Madras, Tamil Nadu, to Murali and Lakshmi. He started playing college cricket at the age of 17 and was scouted by former Indian cricketer Bharat Arun. He was selected for the Tamil Nadu under-22 squad for the 2004–05 C. K. Nayudu Trophy. Vijay opened the innings and averaged 26.45 in six matches. He was again chosen to represent the under-22 squad for the 2005–06 C. K. Nayudu Trophy and averaged 26.50 across three matches. Based on his performances, Vijay was selected in the Tamil Nadu senior squad for the Ranji One-day Trophy in February 2006 and scored 17 runs in his senior cricket debut in the last group fixture of the tournament against Karnataka on 16 February. He scored 38 in his second match, which was a quarterfinal loss to the 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 centuries and finished as the third highest run getter of the tournament in his debut season. He continued his good form in the 2006–07 Ranji One-day Trophy and scored 277 runs in seven 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 more than 58. His season included two centuries including his high-score of 230* against Saurashtra. In the season, he was also involved in a 462 run partnership for the first wicket with Abhinav Mukund, which was two runs short of the Indian first class record of 464 runs. On the back of his performances in the Ranji Trophy, he was named in the South Zone squad that competed for the Duleep Trophy. In the debut match for the team against North Zone, he scored a duck in the first innings and 39 runs in the second. In the second game of the series against East Zone, he had a similar outing where he scored 46 in the first innings and registered a duck in the second while opening the batting. In the 2007–08 Vijay Hazare Trophy that followed, Vijay played seven matches in which he scored more than 300 runs with back-to-back hundreds against Hyderabad and Andhra.

In September 2008, Vijay was picked in the India A squad to play against the touring New Zealand A team in two four-day matches. He made 45 and 59 in the first match, helping the team 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 amongst the highest run-scorers of the tournament with 164 runs from three matches at an average of over 54.