Cast your mind to the 5th Test match between India and England in Chennai in 2016. Karun Nair hogged the attention of the entire world with his scintillating 300 against The Three Lions.
He thereby became the 2nd Indian batter after Virender Sehwag to score a triple century for India in Tests. But shortly after that, without receiving ample number of opportunities, Karun Nair was shown the door from the Indian cricket team in the most disrespectful manner.
It has been 8 years since that historic triple ton from the Karnataka-based batter and he is still hungry to play for India and represent the nation in the longest format of the game.
Karun Nair mentioned that he is not looking ahead into the future and wants to “be prepared for the grind”.
“You have to be prepared for the grind. It’s just about the next game. And I’m not looking too far into the future because sometimes you can get stuck in thinking about what’s going to happen,” said Karun Nair to PTI.
“I’ve had scored a lot of runs in the last one year in all formats. I’ve just been trying to continue doing what I’ve been doing the last one year on every given opportunity…taking every opportunity as a new day,” he added.
Karun Nair also plays in the County Championship
After playing for Northamptonshire in 2023 in the County Championship, Karun Nair played for the team once again in 2024 after being unsold in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 auction.
In 2023, Nair mustered 249 runs in 3 games and had an outstanding average of 83. In 2024, Karun Nair played 7 matches and amassed 487 runs at an average of 49.
Karun Nair was not getting enough matches to play in Karnataka and then he decided to move to Vidarbha.
“It’s obviously been a difficult time for me. But probably that one season taught me how to value each game…practice harder, do everything smarter. I think that (non-playing season) has made me stronger and more determined to do well in each and every game,” he said.
“No matter what happens, it’s kind of made me, I don’t know, brought some kind of fire in yourself. So, just like I said, I’m happy with the way I’m batting. I want to keep continuing this way,” he added.
When asked about a comeback into the Indian Test team, Karun Nair expressed his desire to play for India again and said he was “very confident” about it.
“Yes, of course. Everyone plays this game to go out there and represent your country and that’s my only aim now — to play Test cricket again, which I think, I’m very confident that I can. I know that I’m good enough,” he said.
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