Playing for Tamil Nadu, he won two Man of the Match awards in the knockout stage of 2014–15 Ranji Trophy.

He captained the Tamil Nadu side in their title winning Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign (2021–2022)[6] In the Indian Premier League, he played one match for the Chennai Super Kings in 2014[7] and four for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2017.

In March 2019, he was named as one of eight players to watch by the International Cricket Council (ICC) ahead of the 2019 Indian Premier League tournament.

[12] On 20 November 2017, he was named as Bhuvneshwar Kumar's replacement in India's Test squad for their series against Sri Lanka, but he did not play.

[17] In January 2019, Shankar was named the replacement for Hardik Pandya, who was banned for his controversial remarks on a TV show, for the remaining two One Day Internationals (ODI) of the Australian tour and the whole limited-overs series in New Zealand.

[19] In April 2019, he was named in India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup ahead of experienced players like Ambati Rayudu and Suresh Raina which created a media buzz around the time.

[23] Then, Shankar was ruled out of India's final two matches due to an injury, with Mayank Agarwal named as his replacement.