There is no doubt about the fact that the Indian opener Murali Vijay will play a crucial role when Indian team takes on a formidable England side in a five-match Test series starting August 1. He has remained largely eclipsed by the players like Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, but now he will be looking forward to the series in the country where he had slammed his first overseas century (146) in 2014.

Speaking to DNA in an interview, Vijay said that Team India’s start will be crucial in the first two matches. About his own role in the series, he said his “main challenge will be to contribute in a specific manner to the team’s win”.

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When asked whether he would have also liked to play County cricket ahead of the England series like Cheteshwar Pujara did, Vijay said he would but couldn’t plan much because of the hectic scheduled. Soon after the Indian Premier League ended, India was set to play Afghanistan in a one-off Test where Vijay hit a ton.

Murali Vijay played for India A against England Lions last week at Worcester, scoring eight and zero, and now he is looking forward to the warm-up matches before the Test series. India will be playing Essex at Chelmsford from July 25-28 before taking the field for the first Test at Edgbaston next week.

Talking about the learnings from the previous overseas Test series which was played in South Africa earlier this year, Vijay said that there were moments in that series versus South Africa during which India did well and he would take the memories of his team fighting in the middle to England. He played in all the three matches of the series that India lost 1-2 but could not hit even a fifty; his highest score was 46.