Player Profile - Cricket Journey Of Indian Batsman Hanuma Vihari

Hanuma Vihari's rearguard action on Monday in Sydney with a torn hamstring may have put on hold his Test career -- he is likely to be ruled out of the fourth and final Test -- but it has certainly

"He is very gritty. He turned up on the third day after his father's death to play the school final and scored 80-odd runs. That was the determination he has right from his younger days. His mother has backed him to the hilt, surviving on a pension of his late father," says his childhood coach John Manoj. "That was his first show of grit."

The former right-handed Hyderabad batsman was a non-performer in the ongoing series until Monday, not just with the bat but also on the field as he dropped a sitter on the fourth morning of the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground to provide Marnus Labuschagne a life.

But Monday's performance virtually on one leg -- he faced 161 deliveries for just 23 and was the slowest ever in Test history to get to double digit -- was deemed by stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane as more important than the Andhra batsman's century against the West Indies at Kingston last year.

"I thought his knock was more special than his hundred, the way he batted after he got injured...there was pressure and the way he managed his batting -- his injury especially -- it was really special to see," said Rahane after the match.

Vihari is not known to budge in face of challenges. He doesn't have the flamboyant shots of any of players he is fighting for the No.6 spot -- Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant -- but he plays within his limitations.