“Dear cricket, give me one more chance.”
Two-and-a-half years following this December 2022 social media post from Karun Nair, cricket has finally listened to his plea for a Team India comeback. He’s a part of the England-bound squad.
After a wait of eight years and two months, the 33-year-old is back in India’s Test fold.
Even an unbeaten 303 against England in Chennai in late 2016 wasn’t enough to cement Karun’s place in the Test squad. His last Test was the Ranchi game against Australia in March 2017, after which the former Karnataka and current Vidarbha batsman fell out of favour.
Karun hadn’t given up, though. He continued to go through the grind, faced as many as 600 balls during practice under the supervision of his long-time coach, Vijay Madyalkar.
Then came the 2024-25 domestic season, where he finished as the fourth-highest run getter in the Ranji Trophy (863 runs) with four centuries and an average of 53.93 in Vidarbha’s triumphant campaign.
The Test retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had brightened Karun’s chances of a Test recall, while his selection for the ‘A’ tour of England further consolidated them. On Saturday, after the squad for the five-Test tour of England was finalised, chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar explained the rationale behind the more experienced Karun being preferred over a younger Sarfaraz Khan.
“At the moment, we felt Karun has scored heaps of runs over the last couple of (domestic) seasons. He has played a little bit of Test cricket early in his career and a bit of county cricket too. We feel that he’s batting well enough.
“Also, now with Virat not there, the team’s clearly lacking a little bit of experience in batting. (Yashasvi) Jaiswal is touring (England) for the first time. (Shubman) Gill has also played (only) one Test there. It’s only KL (Rahul) and (Rishabh) Pant who have played a series there before. So, we felt Nair’s experience could help.
“Sometimes it’s going to be unfair on somebody else, but eventually you’ve got to make choices,” Agarkar said.
The former India pacer and the other selectors seem to have taken the right call with Karun’s inclusion as skipper Gill, Jaiswal, KL Rahul and keeper-batter Pant are the only ones in the current batting group with some experience. As for Sarfaraz, the ton last year against New Zealand in Bengaluru aside, his performances thereafter in challenging conditions haven’t been up to the mark.
Besides, the English conditions aren’t alien to Karun, and that gives him another advantage.
“Karun’s county experience for Northamptonshire (in 2023 and 2024) also matters. He had scored a couple of big hundreds in those conditions, so he does have a fair idea of what could be in store for him and the challenges that come along,” Madyalkar told The Telegraph.
“Look, at the end of the day, Karun works exceptionally hard with his batting, which is why he could come up with significant contributions in games that matter in Ranji. They (selectors) just couldn’t ignore that effort he had put in.
“Now, before he leaves for England, I’ll certainly be speaking with him if there’s any fine-tuning he needs to do going into the series,” Karun’s coach said.
If Karun fares well in the ‘A’ matches, there’s every possibility he will be an automatic choice in the XI for the opening Test at Leeds from June 20. As for his position in the batting order, it could be “either No.3 or 5”.
“A lot depends on where Shubman and KL will bat. That may determine Karun’s position,” a BCCI source stated.
Karun needs to grab this vital opportunity with both hands. Else, cricket will once again turn its face away from him.