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[caption id="attachment_30588" align="aligncenter" width="580"] Murali Vijay has good ''off-the field friendship" with KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan"
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Internet Desk: The third test at Feroz Shah Kotla offers a situation wherein anyone of the in-form Indian openers has to sit out. With Dhawan making himself available for the final test, it will be Rahul who has to make way for Vijay.

The Delhi opener admitted that his "off-the field friendship" with KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan has helped him deal with sensitive selection matters with ease. Both Dhawan and Rahul scored 94 and 79 in the second innings of the first Test on a challenging wicket at Eden Gardens. With Dhawan making himself unavailable for the second test match in Nagpur, Vijay made his comeback successful with a timely hundred.

But with Dhawan again making him available for selection, the axe might fall on Rahul.

On being asked how does he deal with such a situation, Vijay said, "We three are very good friends off the field and that makes it much easier. Definitely, it unsettles (when one is dropped) the opener, who is playing regularly. Obviously, we three share a good rapport outside the field and this will help us big time during the (South Africa) series coming ahead and future."

The Tamil Nadu opener revealed that sharing feelings about selection openly with each other helps them to move on rather than keeping things brewing inside.

 "Make it easier and lighter by talking about it openly and having a good chat over it rather than keeping things within yourself and making the other person feel it." The 33-year-old said whenever he and Dhawan have faced such a situation; they moved on.

"It's better off going in the open. Like whatever I feel or Shikhar feels, we put it out in the open, so that it comes off and we move forward," he said. "Basically, we are fun-loving people and we do things together. We have good times outside the field, which is really helping us as a team." 

Vijay in his mind has already started preparing for the South Africa tour and the old school practice of knocking against tennis ball to cope with bounce was an example.

"I tried to do something different in practice so that it challenges me. I try to be better each and every day possible.

That's the whole concept of doing that." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2ZIbxT6svU