He made his test debut against Australia in November 2008 when the team's regular opener Gautam Gambhir was not available.

Known for his ability to bat for longer periods of time, he played mainly test cricket for India.

He was one of the designated opening batsmen in the away tours, the highlight of which included the 2014 series against England in which he was the top run getter.

After a good series against England in early 2017, his returns diminished over the next two seasons and he played his last test in December 2018.

[10] He continued his good form in the 2006–07 Ranji One-day Trophy and scored 277 runs in seven matches at an average of 39.57 with a high-score of 112.

[17] In the second game of the series against East Zone, he had a similar outing where he scored 46 in the first innings and registered a duck in the second while opening the batting.

[19][20][21] In September 2008, Vijay was picked in the India A squad to play against the touring New Zealand A team in two four-day matches.

[23] In October 2008, Vijay was named in the India Red team for the Challenger Trophy and finished second amongst the highest run-scorers of the tournament with 164 runs from three matches at an average of over 54.

[24] When Australia toured India in November 2008, Vijay received his maiden call-up to the Indian team for the fourth test of the Border–Gavaskar Trophy.

He also effected the run out of Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey during Australia's innings and caught Brett Lee from the bowling of Harbhajan Singh to take his first catch in test cricket.

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 in November 2008.

[33][34] Vijay was selected for the Bangladesh tour in January 2010 as a reserve batsman and made it to the playing eleven for the second test after V. V. S. Laxman got injured.

[37] Vijay made his ODI debut in the third and final match against South Africa at Ahmedabad on 27 February 2010 and scored a moderate 25 runs off 16 balls.

[38] He made his full series debut during a tri-nations tournament in Zimbabwe but fared poorly scoring just 46 runs across three matches.

[39] Despite a poor series in Zimbabwe, his earlier performances were enough for him to be named in the Indian squad for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.

[41] Vijay was selected as the reserve opener for away series against Sri Lanka in August 2010 and scored 99 runs across the two test matches he played.

[38] He played three test matches during the India's tour of West Indies in June 2011 but scored a meager 72 runs.

[44][45] Vijay was part of the Indian squad that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy but did not play a single match in the series.

[38] After his performance against Australia, Vijay became a regular in the Indian test team and played consecutive away series against South Africa and New Zealand.

[57][58] Vijay made his debut in the Indian Premier League for his home town franchise, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2009.

[59] In April 2016, he was picked up by Kings XI Punjab and replaced South African David Miller as the captain of the side in the middle of the 2016 season.

[59] Vijay captained the Kovai Kings side in the first two seasons of Tamil Nadu Premier League in 2016 and 2017.

He used an upright stance on the bouncy wickets outside India and adapted to play the ball late to counter the swing and seam movement.

[2] He is known for his ability to bat for longer periods of time without losing concentration, fetching him the moniker "The Monk".