Despite being a prolific scorer in domestic cricket, Murali Vijay has played only 12 Tests for India in the more than four years but the Chennai batsman says it makes sense in moving forward than staying demoralised. Vijay was third opener after Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in the recent four-Test series against England but did not get to play a single game.

“It’s a challenge being the reserve. But as a professional you can’t crib over it. You have to take it and move forward, that matters a lot rather than sitting and saying you are not playing a match. Whenever I get an opportunity I would like to give it my best shot,” said Vijay, who has scored 4310 runs in 59 first-class matches at an average of 46.84.

“The motivation level was high. I wanted to give my best shot.”

He hoped the platform laid by him and fellow-opener Shikhar Dhawan with their 144-run stand would stand the team in good stead. “Every knock is important. Myself and Shikhar gave a good start to the team and hopefully we can build on it,” he said.

Vijay did not agree with the suggestion that the home team attack was not up to the mark. “They are the best team in domestic competition and have won the Ranji Trophy for the 40th time. They have a good attack. Once we got in, myself and Shikhar decided to play our natural game. We decided to play positive cricket,” he said.