- By Namrata Vijay
- Sat, 30 Aug 2025 01:37 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
India's star all-rounder Vijay Shankar has finally reacted as to why he left his home domestic team, Tamil Nadu, and would instead play for Tripura during the upcoming domestic tournament. Shankar, who has been the side's main player since 2012, has reckoned that it was getting hard for him to be constantly ignored by the selectors even after performing consistently. The veteran batter had gotten his NOC from the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association and chose to start afresh for his professional cricketing journey.
Shankar said that due to a lack of clarity by the selectors and after being snubbed from the playing XI multiple times forced to take this decision.
“Sometimes, when you’re forced to take that call, you need to move on and look out for opportunities. I think I’ve been playing well. And more importantly, I want to play cricket, that’s it. I can’t go out there and just sit out and give water. It’s quite difficult after playing for so many years,” Shankar was quoted as saying to The Hindu.
He also revealed that the constant changes over the last few years had made it really hard for him. At the same time, he was also dropped from the TNCA President XI since the last three group stage matches of the Buchi Babu tournament, and that only aggravated his frustration.
“Last year, I got dropped for the first two Ranji games, and then I made a comeback. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, again, I was dropped for the last two games. So, after that, it was quite tough. You need some clarity at some point. I was not getting that clarity," he said.
Lack of security from state selectors prompted my decision: Shankar
Shankar had scored 3142 runs after playing in 81 Ranji matches at a staggering average of 44.25 and acknowledged that he didn't feel secure in the side and had to prove his worth all the time, even though he had vast experience and had performed consistently. He had also helped the team lift three domestic titles when he was with them.
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“I never got any secure feeling when it comes to the selectors. So, at one point, I decided I needed to take a call. And I was happy that at least our coach (M. Senthilnathan) came up and told what they (the selectors) were thinking. So, I felt that there was no point staying. And trying to still fight it out to play in this setup was quite difficult,” he added.
Shankar would be seen in action along with Hanuma Vihari while playing for Tripura, and also emphasized that since there was no fixed batting position for him, it had affected him in the last few years, and that led him to take this decision.
“Even if you take the last three years, I think only in 2022 I batted at one batting position, I batted at No. 6 every game, and I got three consecutive hundreds. But after that, from No. 3 to No. 7, I batted everywhere. So, there’s no explanation for this (why he’s being sidelined). But I can say that all these things have made me a better cricketer today. It made me really tough. I was always in a position where I had to keep performing to prove things wrong,” he concluded.
During the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy, he registered his career-best knock of 151 runs against Chandigarh and helped Tamil Nadu win by a huge margin of 209 runs.