Twitter Reactions: Vijay Shankar gets unluckily run-out after scoring 46 in Nagpur

Opportunities are never lost, not even in cricket. With India’s premier all-rounder Hardik Pandya failing to play regularly for the country because of diverse reasons – injury and controversy – it opened the doors for another promising all-rounder Vijay Shankar as he was picked as the former’s replacement. The 28-year-old made his ODI debut against Australia in Melbourne in January and has played quite a few ODIs and T20Is since then.

On Tuesday, Vijay came to bat at No.5 after India were reduced to 75 for 3 with captain Virat Kohli at the other end. The duo took the attack to the opponents’ camp by adding 81 runs from 71 deliveries and the partnership was looking promising when disaster struck.

It was the fifth delivery of the 29th over when Kohli drove one from spinner Adam Zampa straight with a lot of force and the ball touched the bowler’s fingertips on its way to hit the stumps, catching Vijay short of the crease. The non-striker made a good effort to regain his ground but fell short. Vijay was batting very well at the time with 46 from 41 deliveries and the unfortunate dismissal saw a premature end of a promising inning. India were 156 for 4 and their lower middle-order was exposed.

‘Oozing class’, Manjrekar says about Vijay’s knock

Vijay’s 46, however, impressed experts and fans and the knock could help strengthen his case for securing a berth for the World Cup to be held in England and Wales from May. Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar praised Vijay’s innings in a tweet in which he said it was “oozing class”. It is Vijay’s highest score in ODIs so far, bettering the previous best of 45 scored against New Zealand in Wellington last month.

If reports are to be believed, Vijay could be in a race for a WC squad berth with spinner Ravindra Jadeja for one sport that is yet undecided. Jadeja was chosen ahead of Yuzvendra Chahal for the Nagpur ODI may be for the selectors to see how he fares too in the run-up to the quadrennial tournament.

Here are some reactions that the Twittearti came up with over Vijay’s innings:

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