Vijay Shankar IPL Profile

Vijay Shankar is an Indian cricketer, who hails from a family of a cricketers. His father and brother Ajay have played lower-division cricket for Tamil Nadu. Shankar, who represents the Tamil Nadu State cricket team, was born on January 26, 1991, in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. His middle-order batting and medium-pace bowling skills helped him to be selected for the national squad.

He made his first-class cricket debut in 2012, and in another two years time he came into the limelight for big innings in crucial stages. Shankar obtained 577 runs at a 57.70 batting average in the 2014–15 Ranji season after scoring 111, 82, 91, and 103 in the knockouts. His perfomance improved over the couple of seasons and his exploits did not go unnoticed as he was picked for India's squad soon.

Vijay was included in the national team in 2017 as Bhuvneshwar Kumar's replacement in the Test team for the series against Sri Lanka. However, he did not get to play any match during that series. His debut came in the 2018 Nidahas Trophy, a tri-nation series, against Sri Lanka. However, his inability to clear the boundary in the final match against Bangladesh was criticised by the fans. He later termed it an embarrassing moment and a lesson for the future.

Vijay's ODI debut was a little bit eventful as he replaced Hardik Pandya for the last two ODI matches of a series against Australia and the whole limited-overs series in New Zealand in 2019 after Pandya was suspended for making contentious comments on a TV show.

Shankar's selection to India's 2019 ODI World Cup squad was a bit controversial itself as the player was preferred over middle-order batter Ambati Rayudu. BCCI chief selector MSK Prasad justified the selection saying Shankar is a three-dimensional player for his all-round abilities. Rayudu soon responded with a sarcastic tweet: ""Just Ordered a new set of 3d glasses to watch the world cup.""

As far as IPL is concerned, Vijay's debut in the franchise league came with Chennai Super Kings in 2014 and was his sole match that season. He played for several IPL franchises since debut. He was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2017 season, where he played four games and notched his first half-century. 

The following season, the all-rounder was acquired by Delhi Capitals for a season and then was moved to Sunrisers Hyderabad, where he played for two seasons before the mega auction. He became an IPL champion with Gujarat Titans in 2022 but had limited role to play in the triumph. In 2023, he played a bigger role with the impact substitution facilitated his inclusion.