Not Sehwag, Ravi Shastri thinks this cricketer is 'India's best Test opener after Sunil Gavaskar'

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar is regularly hailed as one of the best openers India have ever produced in Tests. Gavaskar has all the reasons to be hailed so, courtesy becoming the first batter to cross 10000 Test runs. Moreover, he also has 34 Test centuries to his name. And when you think about the second best opener, one name that comes to your mind would be Virender Sehwag. However, former India coach Ravi Shastri thinks otherwise, and believes Murali Vijay is the next best Test opener India have produced.

Former India bowling coach Bharat Arun knows Murali Vijay inside out and echoed Ravi Shastri’s thoughts on Murali Vijay. “If you want me to name a batter whom I knew from a very young age, Murali Vijay was someone whom I saw in college. I recommended him to another First-Division team. That’s when the journey started. Ravi [Shastri] often says that Murali Vijay is the best Test opener India had after Sunil Gavaskar. And that’s a huge compliment today. So I can say that my interactions with him [Vijay] have been outstanding and he is one of my favourite players,” Bharat told Cricket.com.

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Murali Vijay finished his Test career with 3982 runs from 61 Tests, including 12 centuries and 25 fifties. He had opened the innings for India 100 times, scoring 3880 runs as an opener. His highest score remains a knock of 167 against Australia in Hyderabad in 2013.

Virender Sehwag, meanwhile, played 104 Tests, scoring 8586 runs with 23 hundreds and 32 fifties.