It was the November of 2008 and a young M Vijay was playing the season's Ranji Trophy opener against Maharashtra at Nashik. Over a period of two days, Vijay was involved in a 462-run opening wicket partnership with Abhinav Mukund when the call came that he had to join the Indian team in Nagpur for the final Test of the series against Australia because Gautam Gambhir had been banned.
It was a controversial selection, Wasim Jaffer was still very much in the mix, but the then chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth went on instinct and decided to blood in a youngster whom he had seen from close quarters. And from that Nagpur Test, where MS Dhoni officially took over as India's Test captain and Sourav Ganguly played his last international game, started a topsy-turvy international career that lasted for 10 years.
