Nair's domestic success sparks India Test recall hopes

Having tackled challenges of various nature, Karun Nair is on a tough career-rebuilding process but the India batter does not want to look too far ahead as he feels it can make him stuck at one place.

It has been seven years since Karun has played a match for India but he has shown a bit of old fire in the last year or so, garnering runs for Vidarbha and for Northamptonshire in English county cricket.

“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 here on Wednesday.

“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.

The first hint of a positive turnaround in Karun's career came when he turned out for Northamptonshire in early 2023 when he made 249 runs from three matches at an average of 83 that contained a hundred against eventual champions Surrey.

This year, Karun aggregated 487 runs from seven matches at an average of 49 including a century against Glamorgan.

These are not mind-blowing numbers, but good enough to instil oodles of confidence in a batsman who was struggling to find some purpose in his craft.

“You are playing with a different ball there – literally. Everyone knows for Indian batsmen to go and score runs in England…to play the moving ball is tough. So, I've learnt a lot more about myself as a batsman and finding ways to score runs and believing in yourself.

“There are so many things that I've learnt in England that, you know, maybe I had it in me but I didn't realise all this while,” he noted.

Then came the move to Vidarbha from Karnataka during the last domestic season, and it came at the right time for him.

The right-hander was getting frustrated at not getting enough games in his home state, but all that changed once he moved to Vidarbha.

He made 690 runs from 10 matches with two hundreds, helping his side to reach the Ranji Trophy semifinals.

“First of all, it's the opportunity to play in the Ranji Trophy cricket, which I missed out for a year for reasons that I don't know. So, I am really thankful to Vidarbha for giving me the opportunity to play first-class cricket.

“So, the aim is to improve on last year and go one step further. And, you know, hopefully we can win a couple of trophies,” he said.

The 32-year-old was understandably disappointed at not getting a first-class match for a full season but he found a shard of positive in that gloom too.

“It's obviously been a difficult time for me. But probably that one season taught me how to value each game…practice harder, do everything smarter. I think that (non-playing season) has made me stronger and more determined to do well in each and every game,” he said.

“No matter what happens, it's kind of made me, I don't know, brought some kind of fire in yourself. So, just like I said, I'm happy with the way I'm batting. I want to keep continuing this way.”

But the last year has also rekindled Karun's dream of walking back into the Indian dressing room.

“Yes, of course. 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.

But for now, Karun would like to cap the good beginning to a new season with a title triumph in the ongoing KSCA Maharaja T20 with the Mysore Warriors.

“We've crossed the first step, that is to qualify for the semis, which is something that we set out to do when we started the tournament,” he signed off.