Veteran India and Tamil Nadu off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has shared his views on why his teammate Vijay Shankar has gone off the radar of both the domestic and national sides.
Because of his 3-dimensional characteristics, Shankar, who is struggled with injuries, was handed the big opportunity to play in the 2019 World Cup, where he played 3 games and failed to impress, resulting in the right-hander was never recalled to India set-up again since then.
The all-rounder has been also not given enough opportunities on the domestic circuit as well, and Ashwin reckoned that Shankar’s progress has been marred with injuries. The off-spinner further said the constant injuries regularly have hurt the 30-year-old and even hampered his stint in the domestic circuit with Tamil Nadu over the past few years.
Ashwin further went on to opine that the injury management among senior players is crucial and at one age, it becomes even more difficult with the age, saying it is not easy for any player to play in the same vein as before following the battle with the injuries.
He also believes that Tamil Nadu Cricket must find a role for all the senior players, including Shankar, who have been the backbone of the team for several years.
Ashwin told The New Indian Express: “Vijay Shankar has definitely struggled, but he will find a solution and can get his injuries sorted. B Indrajith, B Aparajith, and Vijay Shankar have been the backbone of Tamil Nadu cricket for a while (5 -8 years), but there are a lot of promising youngsters also coming through. It’s a matter of managing roles and giving seniors the right role.”
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He continued, “Even in the India team, there is constant change in players (senior) in the team and new players come in. You need to strike a balance. Vijay is a fine player who has played in the World Cup and has a lot of experience. He has had a lot of injuries and there is no better person to understand it (injuries) better than me. Sometimes people are not sensitive to injury.”
The spinner signed off by saying, “It doesn't become easy to manage injuries as you grow old. Vijay is about 30-31 years old and managing injuries when you get older is harder. So, I think we must give the right roles and we must balance it with youngsters coming in and seniors. We should look for a way forward, utilize Vijay Shankar’s experience, and also blend it with the youngsters. It will be good for TN cricket if we strike a good balance and give more opportunities for youngsters.”
