India batter Karun Nair has been doing the rounds across social media platforms since his last tweet around requesting another chance from the sport of cricket. Not the most encouraging of tweets for a triple centurion in Test cricket, it pretty much summed up how Nair has fallen down the pecking order not just with respect to the national team but also for his state team.
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Nair, who turned 31 last week, neither represented Karnataka in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2022-23 or Vijay Hazare Trophy 2022-23 nor is part of their squad for the first two Ranji Trophy 2022-23 matches starting from tomorrow.
Nair’s last representative match was Ranji Trophy 2021-22 quarter-final played six months ago. Since then, all that the right-handed batter has played is for Mysuru Warriors in Maharaja T20 Trophy 2022. Captain of the side, Nair had scored 257 runs in 12 innings at an average and strike rate of 23.36 and 146.02 respectively.
Why Karun Nair is not playing for India?
Supporters of Nair are well within their right to argue that Nair didn’t receive a consistent run at the highest level. Only the second Indian batter to score a Test triple hundred, Nair contributed a total of 71 runs across six innings at an average of 11.83 on either side of the milestone.
What hurt Nair’s chances the most was a sharp decline in his Ranji Trophy form. Since playing his last international match, Nair has averaged less than 30 twice across four Ranji seasons. Cut-throat competition among probables for the Indian Test team has significantly reduced Nair’s chances especially after him averaging 41.47 in this period.
| Karun Nair Ranji seasons since last match for India | |||||||
| Season | Matches | Innings | Runs | Highest | Average | 100 | 50 |
| 2017-18 | 7 | 11 | 612 | 153 | 68 | 3 | 1 |
| 2018-19 | 5 | 10 | 224 | 63 | 24.88 | 0 | 2 |
| 2019-20 | 9 | 15 | 366 | 81 | 26.14 | 0 | 3 |
| 2021-22 | 3 | 5 | 291 | 175 | 72.75 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 24 | 41 | 1493 | 175 | 41.47 | 4 | 7 |
Although it’s somewhat unfair to bring numbers of other formats into picture regarding Nair’s lost position in the Test side, him returning substandard performances in Vijay Hazare Trophy has also not helped his case in making a national comeback.
| Karun Nair Vijay Hazare seasons since last match for India | |||||||
| Season | Matches | Innings | Runs | Highest | Average | 100 | 50 |
| 2017-18 | 8 | 8 | 279 | 100 | 39.85 | 1 | 2 |
| 2018-19 | 4 | 4 | 100 | 37 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019-20 | 9 | 6 | 66 | 24 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020-21 | 7 | 3 | 87 | 33 | 29 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021-22 | 5 | 5 | 79 | 39* | 19.75 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 33 | 26 | 611 | 100 | 25.45 | 1 | 2 |
Although T20 was never Nair’s strongest format, him scoring 1,680 runs in 70 innings at an average and strike rate of 26.40 and 135.74 respectively in this period are still decent numbers. Readers must note that Nair has been released by Rajasthan Royals after failures in both Indian Premier League 2022 innings.
Even if Nair deserved more opportunities from the national selectors, he could have always piled on more runs to be in contention for a national comeback. However, lack of runs across formats in domestic cricket has resulted in him being unsure about his next competitive match. A batter of his potential finding himself in such a position has it in it to be a major professional concern.
Karun Nair last Test match
For the unversed, the last of Nair’s six Tests had been played during the last Australia’s Test tour of India in Dharamsala almost six years ago. Nair, who scored 5 (16) in his only outing in that match, had also represented India in a couple of ODIs before his Test debut in 2016.
