Vijay Shankar 🏏

A late bloomer by Indian standards, Vijay Shankar has turned out to be a consistent performer for Tamil Nadu across all formats of the game. A highly rated middle-order batsman, he is a more than useful medium-pacer as well, a skill that has earned him a place in the Indian national team.
 

Vijay Shankar hails from a family of cricketer, his father and brother Ajay has played lower division cricket for Tamil Nadu. His career has seen several disruptions due to injury, Vijay has carved a niche for himself in Tamil Nadu's middle-order, particularly after the exit of long-serving batsman, Subramanium Badrinath.
 

Genuine all-rounders are a rare commodity in Indian cricket and Vijay Shankar's solidity with the bat and usefulness with the ball earned him a place in the national team for the Nidhas Trophy featuring Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In his debut tournament, he was named Man of the match award in the league stage for his bowling. But in his maiden series he will only be remembered for his four dot balls against Mustafizur Rehman in the crucial 18th over of the final against Bangladesh.
 

World Cup through the years
 

Vijay Shankar - the man who has never played World Cup cricket before, and was barely in the reckoning for the national team about a year ago. The pace-bowling all-rounder lost his place in the side after a panic attack in the Nidahas Trophy final in 2018, but an off-field controversy involving Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul offered Shankar a route back into the side, and some decent performances in the middle-order in 2019, and a pressure last-over finish with the ball, earned him the much-debated number 4 spot going into the 2019 World Cup, ahead of a dreadfully out-of-form Rayudu and a controversy-struck Rahul. Shankar, however, was not in the best of form during the IPL, and would certainly hope that the World Cup brings him luck, given that his competitor for the spot is the in-form KL Rahul. The chairman of selectors has mentioned that India will be starting off with Shankar at number 4, and move forward depending on his performance at the No. 4 position.