Big blow for India as Murali Vijay ruled out of first Test against Sri Lanka

Team director Ravi Shastri on Monday announced that Murali Vijay was indeed ruled out of the first Test against Sri Lanka. According to a report in The Indian express, Vijay hadn’t recovered satisfactorily from his right hamstring strain to take the field, and it was a risk to play him considering the rainy weather and the possibility of there being a wet outfield. 

The report says it was obvious to see how vexed Shastri was over missing out on the stabilising agent of the Test batting line-up. “Big blow. He is the in-form player and has had a fabulous run in Tests. He has the ability to play the long innings which he has shown and he will be missed. Because he is an experienced player now,” said Shastri. 

“The team director would follow the announcement up by laying out his blueprint for the Test team, insisting that playing five bowlers was the way forward. That meant India will go into Galle, and maybe a number of subsequent Tests, with only five batsman plus wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha,” says the report.

Meanwhile a report in The Times of India says one of India's most prolific batsman over the last year, Murali Vijay, went through a rigorous half-an-hour fitness test with physio Patrick Farhat before being ruled out of Wednesday's first Test against Sri Lanka here with a hamstring injury.

The Tamil Nadu opener has been terrific since his second coming into the Indian team in 2012-13. Over the last three years, he has notched up over 1,700 runs at the top of the order most of them overseas in England, New Zealand and Australia. "His absence is obviously a massive blow. He was the in-form player in this side," Shastri said. 

That means India will have a new opening pair in KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan for the third Test on the trot. Both Rahul and Dhawan, though, will walk into the game with tons in their last Tests in Sydney and Fatullah respectively.

The TOI report says ever since Kohli took over the reins from MS Dhoni in Sydney earlier this year, he has preferred Rohit Sharma as his man for the critical No. 3 spot. Rohit's predecessor Cheteshwar Pujara was sidelined to just fielding drills a clear indication that the Saurashtra batsman will have to bide his time.

"It's great that we have competition for places in the team. There might very well be a situation in the series when we may need six batsmen and that's where Pujara will come in. For now we are playing the best five batsmen. If Pujara fits into it, he'll play. Otherwise he'll sit out," the director said bluntly.