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This newspaper’s columnist, Ian Chappell was mighty impressed with Vijay. Judging only from his maiden innings in the 2008 Nagpur Test, Chappell wrote in Sunday mid-day: “There are signs that India have some viable replacement batting options. In Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir they have a dynamic opening combination that should be around for some time to terrorise opposition. The promising debut of Murali Vijay should give cause for confidence that there’s a replacement opener on call for any emergency. He [Vijay] also looked like he could easily fill a top-order batting slot if necessary.”

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Vijay figured in 61 Tests for India and of his 3982 runs, 1324 were scored against the Australians in 15 Tests over which he smashed four centuries. The highlight for the Tamil Nadu batsman was the 2014-15 Test series in Australia, where he scored 482 runs at 60.25 which included a 99 at Adelaide and 144 at Brisbane.