Karun Nair has taken a veiled dig at the selectors after India’s batting collapsed on the third day of the India vs South Africa 2nd Test. Already 0-1 down in the series, India were trailing by 480 runs. Things were going all right until Yashasvi Jaiswal departed for 58.
Karun Nair’s cryptic tweet
From there, India collapsed in a historic manner. The next 5 wickets fell for 27 runs. From 65/0, the hosts were 122/7. It was a monumental embarrassment. As everyone was thrashing India’s display, Nair also jumped on the backlash train. However, his criticism wasn’t directed at the players.
“Some conditions carry a feel you know by heart — and the silence of not being out there adds its own sting,” Nair wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The veteran batter was dropped from the Test team last month, when the West Indies toured for a 2-match series. The comeback wasn’t what the selectors expected. By all measures, Nair was the most disappointing batter for India in England. Despite all of his experience, he didn’t come into use when India was without Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Nair had let his frustration be known after getting dropped and clearly isn’t pleased even now. He’s been in fine touch in the Ranji Trophy 2025-26 for Karnataka, scoring 602 runs at 100.33 with two hundreds, including a double, to his name.
Context behind Karun Nair’s post
For those who may understand the context of Nair’s cryptic tweet, the last time India conceded 400 runs in an innings and won the match was in the memorable game where Nair scored his triple hundred. The Chennai Test against England in 2016. By tweeting what he did, Nair was perhaps telling the selectors what they missed out on. That he would have pulled out another masterclass, like he did in Chennai, in Guwahati.
