Murali Vijay Biography – Career | Personal Life | Career Summary

Murali Vijay Biography: Murali Vijay who got the nickname of “Monk” for his calm character got more upside down in his career as well as in his personal life.

Murali Vijay made his international debut in 2008 in a Test match against Australia. Whenever Murali Vijay’s name hits the media everyone starts to go back to his marriage controversy.

Yes, Murali Vijay’s personal life has a massive dent after he married Nikita Vanjara who is his friend’s wife. Check out the full details of how he met Nikita Vanjara along with his career path.

Murali Vijay Biography

Murali Vijay Family

• Murali Vijay was born on 1 April 1984 in Trichy, Tamil Nadu to Murali and Lakshmi.
• He started playing cricket only at the age of 17 at the college level and caught the eye of Bharat Arun to play junior-level and Ranji Trophy cricket for Tamil Nadu.
• Vijay failed in his 12th standard exams with 40% when he was 17 years old, on the other hand, his sister scored 98%. After his poor result, his father told him that he is worthy for a peon’s job.
• He was hurt by his father’s remarks and left the house and shifted to a local hotel.
• To get some earning, he started working in a snooker club and a commission-based business, alongside which he used to practice cricket.
• Later, he continued his studies and cleared his 12th standard exams, and choose to join Vivekananda College, Chennai, as it was a reputed college for cricket.
• Initially, he wasn’t selected to play for the Tamil Nadu domestic team because of his long hair, after which he got a short haircut and later played for that team.

Murali Vijay Wife

• He is married to Nikita Vanjara who is the Ex-wife of Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik.
• Murali Vijay met Nikita Vanjara during the fifth edition of IPL in 2012, and they became involved soon after.
• In 2012, Tamil Nadu was playing a crucial Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Karnataka, and during this match, Karthik came to know about his wife’s affair with Murali Vijay.
• Upon learning about their relationship, Karthik immediately divorced Vanjara, following which she and Vijay hurriedly got married the same year.
• Nikita was pregnant with her first child at the time of her divorce, and she gave birth to her son Nirav in 2013.
• The couple have since then welcomed a daughter named Iva and another son.
• As of today, Murali Vijay and Nikita are parents of 3 children.

Who is Nikita Vijay / Nikita Vanjara?

• Ex-wife of Dinesh Karthik. After they part ways knowing she had affair with Murali Vijay, she got married to the latter within a few days.
• Nikita Vanjara is her original name, where she was fondly known as Nikita Vijay after she got married to him.
• She is basically an entrepreneur, who started a new fitness venture, Tattva — The Studio in 2020.
• She is also the owner of the clothing brand, Label Eva, which offers premium clothing for girls from ages 2-8.

Murali Vijay Career

Domestic Career

• He first played club cricket in Chennai representing Alwarpet in 2003.
• He was then selected in the Tamil Nadu Under-22 squad for the 2004-05 CK Nayudu Trophy.
• He continued to play club cricket in 2005, before getting selected again in the Tamil Nadu Under-22 squad for the 2005-06 CK Nayudu Trophy. He failed to impress once again, averaging 26.50 in 3 matches.
• Despite his below-average performances in club cricket and Under-22 tournaments, Vijay was selected in the Tamil Nadu squad for the Ranji One-day Trophy in February 2006.
• He made his senior cricket debut in Tamil Nadu’s last group fixture of the tournament, against Karnataka on 16 February, and scored 17 in that match.

• Vijay rose to prominence during the 2006-07 Ranji Trophy, his debut first-class season, in which he finished as the third-highest run-getter of the tournament, only behind Karnataka’s Robin Uthappa and Bengal’s Manoj Tiwary.
• At the start of this tournament, he made his first-class debut against Delhi and scored fifty in his debut innings.
• After the conclusion of the Ranji Trophy, he was selected in the South Zone squad for the 2007-08 Duleep Trophy. He batted at 3 in the first match against North Zone and scored a duck and 39.
• 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.
• In October 2008, Vijay was named in the India Red team for the Challenger Trophy.

International Carrier

Test

• Murali Vijay made his Test debut against Australia in the Fourth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, in Nagpur, in November 2008. Vijay was participating in a Ranji Trophy match at the time and made his Test debut on the final day of that match.
• In December 2009, Vijay was given another opportunity in the Test team when Gambhir withdrew from the Third and final Test against Sri Lanka at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai in order to attend his sister’s wedding.
• Vijay took two catches at the bat-pad from Harbhajan in Sri Lanka’s first innings. When India replied, he put on 221 for the first wicket with Virender Sehwag but was out for 87 insight of his maiden Test century. The Indians went on to complete an innings victory, and become the number 1 Test team.

• Vijay scored his first Test century outside India in July 2014 at Trent Bridge against England. He finished as the leading run-scorer for India in the series with 402 runs from five matches.
• After suffering a few injuries and playing quite sporadically in 2016 and 2017, Vijay returned in the home series against Sri Lanka scoring a couple of tons in a series-winning effort.
• He was called for the 2018 India tour of South Africa and England too but could not perform up to his own standards. Midway through the series against England, Vijay was dropped and KL Rahul opened the batting.

ODI

• 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. He did not get to play and was dropped after the first three matches upon the return of senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar from a break
• Vijay debuted in ODIs against South Africa in the third and final one-dayer on 27 Feb 2010.
• Vijay was selected for New Zealand 5 ODI series 2010 and he played the first 3 ODI in which he scored an average of 30. Later, he was replaced by wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel for the other 2 ODI matches.

T20I

• Murali Vijay was selected for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.
• On May 01, 2010, M Vijay made his T20I debut against Afghanistan at Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium.
• Vijay has played 9 T20Is in his career where he has scored 169 runs.
• His last T20I came against Zimbabwe in 2015.

IPL

• Murali Vijay was signed by the Chennai Super Kings during the second season of the Indian Premier League in 2009 where he played only four-game.
• He was one of their valuable players when they won the tournament in succession in 2010 and 2011.
• Vijay played for Chennai Super Kings until the sixth season of the competition before Delhi Daredevils roped him for 5 crores at the 2014 auction.

• In April 2016, he was named captain of Kings XI Punjab replacing South African David Miller in the middle of the season.
• He missed out on the entire 2017 season due to wrist surgery.
• Vijay was bought back by CSK in 2018 after going unsold on the first day of auctions.
• He was retained by the franchise for the 2019 edition as well.
• Vijay featured for CSK in the IPL 2020 in 3 matches and scored 32 runs where the team failed to enter into the playoff for the first time in IPL history.
• CSK released Murali Vijay ahead of IPL 2021 Auction.

Murali Vijay Career Summary

Batting Career

Bowling Career

Who is Dinesh Karthik’s wife?

Dinesh Karthik met Dipika Pallikal in 2015 who is an Indian squash player. They were said to be taking fitness sessions under the same coach. After a few meetings with Karthik both fell in love and started dating each other. In August 2015, both tied the knot.