Murali Vijay polishes his skills with tennis balls ahead of the final Test at Kotla

The No. 1 Test side is all set and fired up to take the field for the final Test match against Sri Lanka at New Delhi from Saturday. The hosts already lead the three-match Test series 1-0, after an incredible win at Nagpur in the second match. Virat Kohli and his Men are currently working hard in their preparations in the nets for the third Test match. On Friday in the practice sessions at Feroz shah Kotla, opener Murali Vijay was seen practicing with some tennis balls which is a unique training before a Test match.

Vijay scored 121 runs in the Nagpur and stitched a 209-run partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara for the second wicket which provided the team a platform to score a big total in the first innings of the Test match. The Tamil Nadu batsman was coming into the team after a gap of eight months after a injury layoff. It was very important for him to get runs in his baggage and also for the Indian team before the important tour to South Africa, later this month.

Unique way of practice before the final Test

The Indian opener described his preparation as a different thing which he was trying to do in the practice sessions. He revealed that it helps him to get ready for all the future challenges coming in his way. Vijay also spoke about the fun while practicing with the tennis balls.

“I was trying to do something different in my practice (sessions). It was some fun and it challenges me to be better each and every day,” said Vijay on the eve of final Test match as quoted by News18.

The Indian captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri have to make a difficult decision of choosing their two openers for the final Test match from, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan. Dhawan missed the second match due to person reasons, which allowed Murali Vijay to get back his opening slot and he also scored a century in the match.

While, KL Rahul didn’t had a great outing at Nagpur, but he has been pretty consistent in the longer format in recent times. Vijay also talked about the opening pair and said that it doesn’t really matters to have a settled pair open the innings.

“It doesn’t matter (settled opening pair). We three are good friends off the field and it makes it easier to do well. We three are in good form and it will help us in the future series,” he added.