His recent performances can put him back in the scheme of things for a India return.
Discarded India batter Karun Nair has witnessed a tremendous redemption arc and a fairytale comeback following his heroics in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT). The 33-year-old Nair, who is currently the leading run-scorer in VHT, has notched up 664 runs in 6 innings at a mindboggling average of 664.00.
Back in 2016, Nair was in the limelight, after he registered a historic knock of 303 against England and became only the second Indian batter after Sehwag to hit a triple century.
However, he was soon dropped from the side never to be seen again following some average performances in 2017. To date, Nair has played 6 Tests and 2 ODIs.
Despite the abrupt halt to his international aspirations, the batter kept playing regular cricket for Karnataka which came to an end in 2022 and he joined his current team Vidarbha next season.
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Recounting his struggles and the difficult journey to pull himself back, Nair revealed that his attitude about losing made all the difference.
Speaking in a video posted by BCCI on their social media handle on X (formerly Twitter), Nair said,
“The toughest time for me was in the end of 2022 when I lost my place in the Karnataka side. Mentally and emotionally it was very challenging. It took me a few months to think about it and what I should do going forward. So these few months really taught me an invaluable lesson to respect each day as a new one and each innings as a new one.”
“I like winning and honestly I am a very bad loser. I don’t want to lose any game be it cricket or be it any other sport. Even in the warm-ups I don’t like losing,” he added.
Karun’s immediate goal will be to guide Vidarbha to the finals of VHT as they take on Maharashtra in the semis today (January 16). His next best chance to break into the Indian team would be the Test series against England later in June this year.
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