Murali Vijay is the best Indian opener not named Sunil Gavaskar or Virender Sehwag: RaviChandran Ashwin

Former India opener Murali Vijay has the highest conversion rate from fifty to one hundred in home Tests among Indian batsmen.

In India, Vijay had a conversion rate of 60% in Tests. 15 times in Home Tests, he has scored over 50 runs, with nine of those being hundreds. This demonstrates that he had a higher conversion rate than Mohammed Azharuddin, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma.

No wonder many, including Sanjay Manjarekkar, were taken aback by the former opener’s statistics. The number of cricket fans who would have remembered Vijay alongside giants such as Tendulkar, Dravid, and Gavaskar is pitiful. After the opening partnership of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir ended, it is Vijay who has assumed the position of India’s opening batsman. His Test career could not get off to a strong start. Until 2018, he was regarded as one of the top Test openers in the world. However, he began to ascend as the first-choice opener in 2013 and became one of the best in the world by 2018.

Ravichandran Ashwin has much to say about Vijay, with whom he has played a great deal of cricket for Tamil Nadu and India. After Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag, the veteran Indian spinner deems Vijay to be the best Indian Test opener. Ashwin also compared him to Cheteshwar Pujara, another batting mainstay. He believes that neither of them have recognised themselves as they should.
Ashwin remarked for ESPNCricinfo, “M Vijay, according to me, is India’s greatest opener outside of Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag.”

“Murali Vijay and Puji are comparable in that neither has received sufficient recognition. In addition, they had some of the most humorous disagreements. “They used to perform the most difficult task in Test cricket – playing out the new ball in trying conditions – so it is par for the course for a few oddities to emerge from that kind of relationship,” he explained.

“They may use an entire session break to bickering about a call that Puji would not have answered. Vijay would attempt to get others to support him, but Puji would remain steadfast and maintain, “There was no run.” You can have witnesses, proof, and legal counsel, but Puji will never change his view. Neither does he become frustrated by these arguments “he added.

Ashwin was effusive in his compliments for Pujara, stating that he had an excellent defence. Additionally, he stated that nobody can convince Pujara to alter his playing style. According to him, this is why Pujara continues to rely on his method. Ashwin referred to him as a beast and stated, “Just as a beast focuses intently on its prey, Puji focuses intently on batting.”