Indian all-rounder Vijay Shankar threw his hat in the race of India’s number four. He showed his good batting display against Australia and New Zealand, where his batting temperament gained praises from cricket experts. Ambati Rayudu’s regular failures in IPL 2019 with the bat also helped his case. KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant were tried at this position as well but no one has shown enough calibers to cement this spot for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
India has been searching for an ideal number four even since the conclusion of World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand. Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ambati Rayudu, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, and Manish Pandey were the candidates for this post in last four years. Moreover, Virat Kohli demoted himself to this place but nothing has been worked out for India.
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Meanwhile, Vijay Shankar batted at number three for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the ongoing season of IPL. He played some good innings with the bat, which strengthens his case for this position. But a failure against Mumbai Indians brought him some criticism from a former Indian player.
Hyderabad was reeling against Mumbai when they lost both their openers. Shankar could have rescued their ship if he hadn’t played a poor shot against Alzarri Joseph and got out for 5 runs off 10 balls. Sanjay Manjrekar targeted him for this aggressive gameplay and said he should stop batting like Rishabh Pant.
Clearly he has the power game but my reading of Vijay Shankar is that he is no Pant to throw his bat at everything, he must model his game on Virat. Bat as per the requirements of the score board.#SRH
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) April 6, 2019
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“Clearly he has the power game but my reading of Vijay Shankar is that he is no Pant to throw his bat at everything, he must model his game on Virat. Bat as per the requirements of the scoreboard,” Manjrekar said.
Shankar has made 105 runs in 5 games for SRH so far this season with his highest score being an unbeaten 40 in his team’s opening clash against Kolkata Knight Riders.
