Veteran Indian Batsman Eyes Historic Test Comeback After Long Absence

When Karun Nair scored a historic triple hundred against England in 2016, he would have hoped for a fruitful stint with team India, however, that was not the case as he was dropped from the team after four consecutive failures. The decision seemed a bit harsh, however, given the stiff competition, it felt fair too. Nair’s 303* is one of the most talked about innings by an Indian in Test cricket but it is easy to forget that KL Rahul also scored 199 in the same match. Both Rahul and Nair got a chance as Ajinkya Rahane was not available for selection and it was probably a battle between the two for a place in the Test team once Rahane returned.

After Rahul scored nine fifty-plus runs in the next thirteen innings, he solidified his position, while Nair lost steam after failing to score more than fifty runs just once.

Nair hasn’t given up even though he is well behind in the competition for a spot back in the Test squad. Nair has had a successful few years, amassing a large number of runs for both Northamptonshire in the English county circuit and Vidarbha in the local cricket league. He averaged 49 runs per match this season, scoring 484 runs for the County side in seven matches, including a century against Glamorgan. For Vidharbha, he tallied 690 runs from ten matches, including two hundreds, helping the team advance to the Ranji Trophy semifinal.

Nair stated that he is skilled enough to compete at the highest level and that his objective is to play Test cricket for India once more. Nair said that he is taking each day as it comes and is not planning too far ahead.

“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,” Karun told 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.

“ 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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