Out-of-favour India opener Murali Vijay has expressed his disappointment at being constantly overlooked by the national selectors, saying that he didn’t get enough backing like the legendary opener Virender Sehwag.

Vijay’s last appearance for India was way back in December 2018 in a Test match against Australia at Perth.

“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,” he added.

Vijay also explained how his career was impacted playing alongside Sehwag, who was given the freedom to go after the bowling attack in Test matches.

“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,” Vijay 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,” he remarked.

Murali Vijay, 38, represented India in 61 Tests, amassing 3982 runs at an average of 38.28 with 12 hundreds and 15 half-centuries. He also featured in 17 ODIs and 9 T20Is, scoring 339 and 169 runs respectively.

In the Indian Premier League, Vijay has turned up for Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings. He last appeared in an IPL match for CSK in 2020.