‘Didn’t get the freedom, backing Virender Sehwag got’: Murali Vijay

India opener Murali Vijay has opened up on how his career was impacted playing alongside legendary opener Virender Sehwag and shared that he did not receive enough backing.

“Consciously, I didn’t get the freedom of Virender Sehwag to be honest. Whatever Sehwag got in his life, I didn’t. If I could have got that kind of backing and open-spreaded talks, I could have also tried,” Vijay told Sportstar.

“The honest thing is the team’s backing and how you can contribute to the team at an international level. It’s a high-level competition and you don’t have many chances to experiment in different ways,” the 38-year-old added.

Vijay also spoke about how he had to control his instincts while opening with Sehwag, besides praising the former cricketer for all that he did for India.

“When Sehwag was there, I felt controlling my instincts and playing was hard but to see him go through that kind of freedom was something spectacular,” he said.

“Only he could have done that. Nobody else I feel could have played like Sehwag. What he did for Indian cricket was amazing. Different… he is something else which I have seen visually. I had the privilege to interact with him. It was so simple. He kept his mantra so simple – See the ball and hit. He was in that mode; singing songs to 145-150 kph bowlers. You are experiencing something else. It’s not normal,” Vijay added.

Vijay, who last played for India in 2018, represented the national team in 61 Tests, scoring 3982 runs and making 12 centuries and 15 fifties.

Sehwag played 104 Tests for India and scored 8586 runs including 23 centuries from 32 fifties. He also slammed two triple centuries.

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