What crime has Karun Nair committed that he never gets a longer rope in Test cricket? After 8 long years, he finally got a tour of England, only to be dropped again in the very next series.
For the West Indies series, Karun Nair’s name was missing from Team India’s squad. But didn’t he deserve a chance, at least in a home series?
Sure, in England, he managed only 205 runs in 4 Tests at an average of 25.6. That’s not a big number. But Sai Sudharsan, too, scored just 140 runs in 3 Tests. We’re not saying Sudharsan should’ve been dropped, but wouldn’t it have been fair to give Nair a little more time as well?
Agarkar's Explanation
Chief selector of the Indian National Cricket Team, Ajit Agarkar addressed the media on Thursday, and said, "I mean, he has played 4 Tests, you have spoken about 1 innings. It's the way it is."
"I mean, Padikkal offers a little bit more at this point. I wish we could give everyone 15 or 20 Tests. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. Frankly, we expected a little bit more from Karun on the England trip," added Agarkar.
Karun Nair's England Tour
8 long years. That’s how long he waited. 8 years of grind, of silence, of fading headlines and unanswered questions. And when the moment finally arrived, the second chance he had begged the game for, he looked ready. But readiness is not the same as redemption.
Karun did get off to promising starts, but sadly, didn't manage to convert them into a substantial score. A whisper of promise. A flicker of the past. And then - silence. In the first 3 Tests in England, Nair could only manage 131 runs in six innings at an average of 21.83, failing to reach even a half-century.
As a result, he was dropped for the fourth Test in Manchester, and Team India preferred Sai Sudharsan, who had earlier been benched after the series opener.
But he was brought back into the playing XI for the 5th Test, and this time he looked determined. A 57 in the 1st innings might not seem like a very big score, but remember, no other Indian batter managed to even cross 40 in that innings. It was a crucial knock, not just in the Test, but in the series. Had it not been for Karun, India might not have narrowly won that Test by 6 runs.
But on the face of it, Karun Nair's top two innings in Test cricket read like this - 303 not out and 57. A big, big gap between the 2 knocks, which Karun could have filled perfectly, had he been given a longer rope, and a home Test series vs the Windies would have been ideal.
Team India Test squad for West Indies
Shubman Gill (c), Ravindra Jadeja (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), N. Jagadeesan (wk), Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
