Murali Vijay claims he played India’s home Test season with a broken wrist

The Indian cricket team was pretty much on auto-pilot during the prolonged home Test series which concluded last month. Their brilliant campaign saw Virat Kohli’s side win 10 of the 13 Tests they played, with just one defeat coming in the first game against the Australian cricket team.

However, the Indian cricket team’s consolidation as the No 1 team in the International Cricket Council ranking for Test teams came at a cost --- injuries to many of their important players.

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While skipper Virat Kohli’s shoulder injury suffered in the third Test against the Australian team in Ranchi forced him to sit out the final match in Dharamsala which India won to seal the series 2-1, there were many others who had to miss one Test or the other.

Batsmen Murali Vijay (shoulder and wrist), KL Rahul (shoulder), Shikhar Dhawan (hand) and Rohit Sharma (thigh) as well as bowlers Mohammed Shami (knee) and Ravichandran Ashwin (sports hernia) also missed at least one Test during the long but productive home season because of fitness issues.

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Murali Vijay was ruled out of the 2017 IPL to recover from shoulder and wrist injuries. The seasoned opening batsman has now revealed he played on despite a wrist fracture.

He underwent surgery in his right wrist in London and is currently undergoing rehabilitation.

“I don’t want to get too much into the status of the injury but I was playing with a fractured wrist,” Vijay was quoted as saying in a media interview.

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“It was a difficult situation to be in, but the team always comes first ... I was not able to bat freely because, as the injury aggravated, I couldn’t play certain shots and when I went out to bat, I had to grind it out. Especially against pacers, it was difficult at times to even defend off the front foot because it was my bottom hand that was injured.”

Vijay was the third highest run-getter during the 13-match home season, aggregating 771 runs at an average of 36.71 to finish only behind Cheteshwar Pujara (13 Tests, 1,316 runs) and Virat Kohli (12 Tests, 1,252 runs). He could play only three of the four Tests against Australia --- he sat out the Bangalore game --- and aggregated only 113 in five innings, which included 82 in the drawn Ranchi game.

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Vijay suffered a shoulder injury while fielding during the fifth and final Test against England in Chennai, but soldiered on despite the injury affecting him and sat out only one match --- the second Test against Australia in Bangalore when Abhinav Mukund stepped in.

KL Rahul and Ashwin have also been ruled out of the entire 2017 IPL while Mohammed Shami played his first match in Delhi Daredevils’ narrow defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Feroze Shah Kotla on Monday.

Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma underwent thigh surgery and is back. The batsman is leading twice former IPL champions.