Karun Nair is a name that has been doing the rounds over the last month or so. The 33-year-old batter racked up a record 779 runs in eight innings in the 2024-25 season of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
His splendid run included five hundreds and one fifty. He had a staggering average of 389.50 and boasted of a strike-rate of 124.04. Nair was dismissed only twice in the entire tournament as he piled on the runs and made full use of a big purple patch.
On the back of this magnificent performance, Nair was even in conversations to make it to the Champions Trophy 2025 squad. The chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar even admitted that they discussed Nair’s name in the meeting. However, with the ODI team well set and no vacant positions in the 15, he wasn’t picked.
The middle-order batter revealed that he wasn’t even thinking about making it to the Champions Trophy squad. But he still has dreams and constantly strives to achieve those.
“If I’m being honest, before the tournament, I wasn’t thinking about that. At least for me, it felt quite far away. But like I said, you have dreams, you have thoughts, you want to achieve things. But you’re not thinking, ‘I’m going to make it.’ You think, ‘I want to make it.’ But whether it will actually happen is always a question mark in your head,” Karun Nair was quoted saying to Sports Today.
Nair was a highly consistent performer in domestic cricket and his prolific run earned him a spot in the Indian team in 2016. He made his international debut in an ODI in Zimbabwe in June 2016 before making his Test debut against England later that year.
He made headlines in just his third Test as he became just the 2nd Indian to hit a triple hundred in Test cricket. He smashed an unbeaten 303 against England in Chennai in December 2016.
However, he played only three more Tests (all against Australia in early 2017) before he was discarded. He was a part of the squad for another year but he didn’t get an opportunity to feature in the XI after March 2017.
Hence, Nair admitted that his dream is still to play Test cricket for India and that is something that has constantly been on his mind.
“I still have the dream of playing Test cricket for India. I’ve said it in many interviews. So quite honestly, that was the only thing on my mind. I wasn’t even thinking that I’d be mentioned or considered for the Champions Trophy squad, so I feel really grateful for that,” Nair revealed.
Nair has played two County seasons and moved to Vidarbha two seasons ago
Karun Nair represented Karnataka for nearly a decade before he made the move to Vidarbha in the 2023-24 season. Since moving to Vidarbha, he has fared well in the Ranji Trophy where he has 1025 runs at an average of 39.42 across 16 matches. He had got 230 runs at an average of 46 in last year’s Vijay Hazare Trophy.
He has also flown to the United Kingdom for a couple of County stints. He represented Northampton for three games in 2023 and amassed 249 runs which included one ton along with one fifty. In 2024, he made 487 runs while averaging 48.70 with one hundred and three fifties.
Thus, with good exposure to English conditions, Nair could be a valuable addition to the Test side. Even more so, if you consider the current fragile Indian batting line-up which hasn’t been able to get big scores.
