Karun Nair and expectations. He was expected to tear it apart in Test cricket after scoring bucketloads of runs in domestic cricket. Then came glimpses of power hitting in the IPL. However, the highlight was his double hundred against the England Lions. It seemed like a destiny call for the 33-year-old.
Three matches into his comeback, the expectations had changed. In Manchester, Nair was expected to be dropped. This time, these expectations proved to be right. Nair couldn’t have asked for a better chance to succeed. In the first Test, he came to bat at number six when the score read 430/4 and 287/4.
What did he do? Score a duck and 20 runs. Well, he was batting out of position, one could say. In the next two Tests, he returned to a preferred spot of number three. Guess what? Nair failed again. Each time he entered double digits and each time, he failed to make it count.
Why Karun Nair failed
Former India selection and Delhi’s Ranji Trophy coach, Devang Gandhi, has pointed out a chink in Nair’s armour. He provides the reason as to why Nair has been dismissed to full balls so often in the series. Some of it has to do with the quality difference between domestic and international cricket. The other part is Nair’s trigger movement.
“In case of Karun, he has a trigger movement which is trifle late compared to someone like Shubman Gill. If you watch closely, Karun’s front foot is still in the air at the point of release for a pace bowler. Now, if the front foot is in the air at that point, it means if he wants to go on backfoot, he is being late.”
“Now, you can handle a Woakes at his pace, but Archer, Carse, or even Stokes, who can slip in a heavy delivery here and there, can be difficult to handle. He needs to have an early trigger. That is doable, or else, he has to have different triggers for bowlers with different pace. Now the second solution is a difficult one and it would need time and high-end skills to have that adaptability.” Devang told PTI.
Has Karun Nair played his last Test match?
In December 2022, Nair had asked ‘dear cricket’ to give him another chance. The cricket gods heard him. But Nair hasn’t justified his redemption call. Only Zak Crawley has scored fewer runs than him in the India vs England Test series, among the top six batters. And he’s an opener who faces Jasprit Bumrah.
It isn’t as simple as Sai Sudharsan has gotten a chance. One has to realise that Nair is 33. He’s making a comeback after 8 years. The Indian team moved on from Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane despite them performing for almost a decade. Nair isn’t much younger than them.
This was now or never. And his exclusion at Old Trafford seems like the end of the road for his Test and India career. He’ll hope that isn’t the case, but there is an abundance of talent just waiting for a chance. A chance that Nair got. Flat wickets to bat on away from home. It couldn’t have gotten better. And Nair failed. Himself and ‘dear cricket.’
India’s playing XI for 4th England Test
Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan (in), Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur (in), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Anshul Kamboj (in)
Out: Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Deep
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