Vijay Shankar on why Hardik Pandya being a first-choice all-rounder does not bother him

Vijay Shankar has gone on to say that he is not intimidated by competing with Hardik Pandya and should he make his cricketing skills do the talking then he believes that he will be able to make it to the Indian team. Shankar has not played for India after his World Cup dream was cut short midway.

'If it starts affecting me': Vijay Shankar

During a recent interview with a news daily, the 29-year-old went on to say that if the thought of Hardik Pandya being Team India's first-choice all-rounder affects him, then he will lose out on games that he has with him. But, should he focus on the games that he has got and have match-winning performances, then his name will be there in the reckoning. The Tamil Nadu all-rounder also mentioned that the people will talk about him if he performs and if an opportunity arises, he will be getting into the Indian side. He then made it very clear that he cannot think about what other players are doing.

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Meanwhile, the young cricketer also went on to say that things could have been different had he made the most of his opportunities during the showpiece event and in a couple of bilateral series before that as well by saying that during the World Cup 2019, he had missed out on a couple of opportunities against Afghanistan and the West Indies respectively. However, he also admitted that he was dismissed off a good delivery during the group game against the Windies. Furthermore, the Trichy player also added that before the quadrennial event, he had successive 40 plus scores against New Zealand in a tough game and against Australia, and had he converted even one start into a big knock, it would have been a different story.

Vijay Shankar was selected ahead of veteran Andhra batsman Ambati Rayudu in World Cup 2019 which has raised a lot of eyebrows back then and even Rayudu had taken a '3-D' jibe at the then chief-selector MSK Prasad and almost a couple of months later had also announced his shocking retirement as well. Shankar, on the other hand, made an impact for India during their group match against arch-rivals Pakistan where he had accounted for opener Imam-ul-Haq off the very first ball that he had bowled. India beat Pakistan by 89 runs (DLS Method) to register a 7-0 win over the neighbours in World Cups.

Sadly, Shankar went on to suffer a toe injury during a net session and could take no further part in the tournament. The Men In Blue had an outstanding World Cup where they had topped the league but an 18-run loss in the semi-final against New Zealand at Manchester brought curtains down on their campaign.

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