‘I’m ready’ – Murali Vijay is back in form

Vijay scored a 132-ball 129 in the second innings of the match to help the Indians to a draw after CA XI had posted 544 in response to the visitors’ first-innings 385.

With KL Rahul scoring a fluent 62, and the two putting on a 109-run opening wicket partnership, India will head into the first Test in Adelaide, starting on 6 December, with quiet confidence.

For Vijay, it was a satisfying century on a personal level – for long a mainstay in India’s Test squad, he was dropped midway through the Test series in England in July, but he regained form playing with Essex in the County Championship and in India A’s tour of New Zealand thereafter.

“Basically, I am ready,” he said on Saturday, 1 December. “I just want to go out there, contribute and give a good start for my team.”

It wasn’t the usual stoic innings expected of Vijay – he took just 27 deliveries to reach three figures after bringing up his half-century, even hammering 26 runs off one over.

“It was good to get some practice hitting over the boundary,” he said. “I just took my chances and it came my way. I know opportunities are around the corner, and I wanted to be in a positive frame of mind.

“I’ve been working hard on my game and fitness, and I am looking forward to contributing in this series. Hopefully, I can do that.”

In fact, he added that he liked batting on Australian pitches, saying it fit his back-foot game. "Playing in Australia suits my game because I am a batsman who likes to play on the back foot,” he said.

“Australia is the one place you get the bounce. So you can play your shots coming from India and explore shots that you have kept in your kit. I can get them out.”

That said, Vijay joined Ashwin in tempering talk of India being favourites in the series. "Anybody can score runs. We play as per the wicket,” he said. “We tried our best to get them out. But obviously, our intensity was not up to the mark because we were trying a few things and that's going to happen in a practice game.

"That's why we are here. We had prepared to play four days, but missed out on one day. Our bowlers had a good stint today and hopefully, they were able to prepare well.”