When Vyshak got compensated for India A snub

Vyshak Vijaykumar is an optimist, rarely allowing events catch him off guard, but he admitted that he felt sadness and disappointment when he was not named for India A’s two-match unofficial Test tour in Australia. Also, a part of the problem was that he had heard someone say he was on the list. 

Maybe that someone was wrong but Vyshak wouldn’t be sad or disappointed for long because the Indian management had bigger plans for him. Vyshak got called up for India’s four-match Twenty20 International series in South Africa, beginning on November 8. 

“I knew I was going to play for India at some point but I thought it would be after I play for India A, that’s why I was a bit saddened,” he told DH on Wednesday. “Once I got this call I was elated.” 

“As for the things I did to get there, it was always about confidence and drive. All I have always known to do is make a plan and push. Whether you get what you think you deserve or not, your job is to push. That has been my mindset since I was a child, but it only intensified in the last few years.”

Perhaps why the pacer earned a spot in Karnataka’s first-class set up a couple of seasons ago. Fast forward to now, he is the team’s lead bowler. He even showed why when he picked up three crucial wickets in Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy win against Bihar in Patna. 

When asked if the call up, which came a day before the start of this round of Ranji Trophy matches, was an inspiration at all in putting on that sort of a show on the final day of the game, Vyshak started off saying ‘no’, but gradually revealed that the call did matter. 

“No. see, once I get to the ground, whatever the game, I want to give everything. No matter where,” he started. “But, once you get that call, you’re confident. You’re definitely feeling a little something pushing you harder. But we had a bigger thing we were fighting as a team. We knew this was now or never for our campaign. We had to step up. Everyone did.”

Speaking of stepping up, Vyshak had his troubles with weight for most his life due to an undiagnosed gluten allergy, but has since hit the gym and picked up a neat little habit of running distances frequently. 

The 27-year-old joined A3, a performance gym in the City, and under the Guidance of Sai Prasanna and Puneeth, got his body in order. Somewhere on this journey, he realised that he had an incomplete stress fracture in his back to resolve. 

“I was working with these guys during Covid, I would get to the gym with Karun (Nair) at around 4.30 am, and I was lifting weights and so on, but I felt a pain in my back. The MRI said it was an incomplete stress fracture. This was right before the KPL (Karnataka Premier League) and so since then I have been asked to lift light weights,” he explained. 

“The good thing is that I love running. It’s something I picked up when I was training with coach BP Aiyappa at the Sree Kanteerava stadium. My warm-up runs used to be 4 kms so I do that a lot. Of late, it has become a bit harder because my schedule is packed but I will do it tomorrow.”

Besides his dedication to fitness, it helps that he has the services of Karnataka legends R Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun to call on. Perhaps why Vyshak, who plays for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League, has already started preparing for South Africa.

“Obviously, I thought about it already. As soon as you get a call, your mind starts working out stuff, you start visualising. I want to do amazing for my country. I have already thought about how I will go about it,” he said. “I have not had a session with the white-ball yet because I have been playing red-ball cricket, but I can’t complain about all these things. I have been watching my IPL videos to see what sort of deliveries to bowl to what sort of bowlers. I have a plan in my mind.”