Murali Vijay (born 1 April 1984) is a former Indian international cricketer.
He is a right-handed opening batter and an occasional right-arm off break bowler.
He had represented the Indian cricket team and played for Tamil Nadu in domestic first-class cricket.
2001
In 2001, Vijay started playing club cricket in Chennai before he was selected in the Tamil Nadu under-22 cricket team.
2003
He started playing club cricket at the age of 17 in Chennai representing Alwarpet CC in 2003.
He was then selected for the Tamil Nadu under-22 squad for the C. K. Nayudu Trophy which Tamil Nadu won with Vijay opening the innings and averaging 26.45 in 6 matches.
2005
He was again selected again in the under-22 squad for the 2005-06 CK Nayudu Trophy and averaged 26.50 in 3 matches.
2006
He made his first-class debut for the Tamil Nadu in 2006 and was amongst the top run-scorers in the 2006–07 Ranji Trophy, which was his maiden first-class tournament.
Vijay was selected in the Tamil Nadu squad for the Ranji One-day Trophy in February 2006.
He made his senior cricket debut in the last group fixture of the tournament against Karnataka on 16 February and scored 17 runs.
He scored 38 in the quarterfinal loss to Railways.
Vijay made his first class debut for Tamil Nadu during the 2006-07 Ranji Trophy.
He scored a fifty in his first-class debut against Delhi.
He accumulated a total of 628 runs at an average of more than 52, including two hundreds and finished as the third highest run-getter of the tournament in his debut first-class season.
He continued his good form in the 2006-07 Ranji One-day Trophy by scoring 277 runs in 7 matches at an average of 39.57 with a high-score of 112.
2007
Vijay played in all seven matches of Tamil Nadu in the 2007-08 Ranji Trophy and scored 582 runs at an average of 58.2 with two hundreds including a high-score of 230* against Saurashtra.
After the conclusion of Ranji Trophy, he was selected in the South Zone squad for the 2007-08 Duleep Trophy.
In the first match against North Zone, he scored a duck and 39 runs in two innings.
In the second game against East Zone, he scored 46 and registered a duck in the second innings while opening the batting.
In the Vijay Hazare Trophy that followed, Vijay played seven matches in which scored back-to-back hundreds against Hyderabad and Andhra.
2008
In 2008, he was called up to the South Zone cricket team and later India A.
He made his test debut in November 2008 after the team's regular opener Gautam Gambhir was banned for one match by the ICC.
Vijay played mainly test cricket for India and scored in 3982 runs in 61 matches at an average of over 38.
He retired from all forms of international cricket in January 2023.
Vijay was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu.
In September 2008, Vijay was picked in the India A team to play against the touring New Zealand A team in two 4-day matches.
He made 45 and 59 in the first match, helping India A win by 129 runs.
He opened the innings and scored 98 runs in the second match, in which India lost.
In October 2008, Vijay was named in the India Red team for the Challenger Trophy and finished second among highest run-scorers of the tournament with 164 runs from 3 matches at an average of 54.66.
In November 2008, Vijay made his Test debut against Australia in the fourth and final test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Nagpur.
He was selected for the match after regular opener Gautam Gambhir received a one-Test ban for elbowing Shane Watson in the previous match of the same series.
Vijay was playing in a Ranji trophy match at the time and was called mid-way to make his test debut.
Vijay partnered Virender Sehwag to open the innings and made 33 and 41, contributing to opening stands of 98 and 116 respectively.
He also effected the run out of Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey during Australia's innings.
He caught Brett Lee from the bowling of Harbhajan Singh to take his first catch in test cricket.
Following his performance in his debut test, Vijay was selected for the Indian ODI squad for the first three matches against the touring England team in November 2008.
He did not get to the playing eleven and was dropped after the first three matches upon the return of Sachin Tendulkar.
2009
In December 2009, Vijay played the third and final Test against Sri Lanka at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
2013
Vijay was a member of the Indian team that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.
He has also played for Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
