After going unsold in the auction to being picked up by LSG in the latter half of IPL 2023, he is looking for a national team comeback.
Karun Nair. (Instagram)
Karun Nair, one of the only two Indian players to have a triple-century attached to their name in Test cricket, knows a thing or two about luck.
Almost seven years ago, he survived an accident while riding in a snake boat in Kerala — an accident in which several people perished.
On the cricket field, he was lucky to have become the only man, after Virender Sehwag, to smash a triple Test hundred.
But in the last couple of years he has been unlucky as his batting form deserted him almost completely, to the extent that he was dropped by his home team, Karnataka.
However, luck has again smiled on him towards the later stages of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) as he was picked as a replacement for injured Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul.
Karun Nair after scoring the triple century. (Instagram)
Nair’s forgettable run drought is, hopefully, on the verge of getting over, though he may or may not get an opportunity in IPL 2023.
The first hint of Nair, now 31, getting his batting form back came during the DY Patil T20 tournament, held in February in Mumbai, where he performed reasonably well, including a 60-ball 95 not out.
Possibly based on this performance, he was, quite surprisingly, included in the LSG squad, after going unsold in the IPL auction in December.
The fact that Nair and KL Rahul had been playing together in what was then called Bangalore even before they entered their teens might have helped.
Much like his selection and omissions in the Indian national team, Nair’s inclusion in the Canara Bank team for the DY Patil T20 Tournament was dramatic.
When he was in the cricketing wilderness and looking for any platform to play and perform to get noticed again, he suddenly got a call from Mansur Ali Khan, a former Karnataka cricketer who was the state Ranji team’s bowling and fielding coach from 2012 to 2017.
Nair made his limited-overs (2012) and first-class (2013) debuts for Karnataka under Khan.
“We were looking for a guest player of stature, preferably someone who had represented India, for the Canara Bank team in the DY Patil Tournament. Through a source, I came to know that Karun was batting well in the nets at a club in Bengaluru. So, I drafted him,” Khan told South First.
It turned out to be a wise decision by Khan, and a fruitful outing for Nair that was perhaps instrumental in his call-up for the LSG.
Nair started the tournament well, with a 29-ball 45, studded with five boundaries and two sixes, against the DY Patil Group B team.
Opening the innings, he and Anuj Rawat (106) gave a solid start of 158 to their team, though poor bowling meant the advantage — and the match — was lost.
Continuing in the same vein, Nair hammered 95 at a fabulous strike rate of 158.33 against the Reserve Bank of India, a knock that included seven boundaries and four sixes.
His Man of the Match award-winning performance was instrumental in Canara Bank’s win.
In the third and final match of the super league phase, though, Nair failed with the bat, his team lost the game and crashed out of the tournament.
Khan, however, took the opportunity to have a serious chat with Nair with the aim to encourage him and clear the cobwebs, if any, in his ward’s head.
Karun Nair playing for the Indian team. (Instagram)
Khan emphasised the different opportunities that would come Nair’s way and insisted that he had to remain mentally strong, at all times.
“I told him that he has to move with the flow. If you sulk — saying I am not getting a chance — then you would lose your path. You have to move on and get mentally strong and say: ‘Hey, I can do it anytime. I can come back.’ Opportunities are waiting to be grabbed,” said the coach.
“I was trying to motivate him. I think he really enjoyed those 10 days with the Canara Bank team practising and relaxing with the boys,” he added.
During their conversation, Nair’s eye contact with his coach didn’t waver, points out Khan.
“He is a very nice boy; he took everything positively. There are some Indian players with whom when you talk they would not make eye-to-eye contact, or just nod their heads, or look elsewhere when you talk to them. Karun, however, paid attention to whatever I said to him,” he disclosed.
The DY Patil T20 tournament came as an opportunity for Nair after he was rejected by all 10 IPL franchises at the players’ mini-auction in December 2022, despite his base price being just ₹50 lakh.
He had previously represented five franchises — Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab, and Kolkata Knight Riders.
This rejection supposedly affected Nair badly, that too at a time when he desperately needed a platform to perform and make a comeback, first to the Karnataka side and then to the national team.
After being ignored at the IPL auction, Star Sports reportedly offered him a commentator’s contract for the IPL 2023.
But the batsman politely declined the offer as he wanted to concentrate on getting back his form and stage a comeback.
Karun Nair practicing with Lucknow Super Giants. (Instagram)
Then, a thigh injury happened to KL Rahul during a match against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Lucknow, and that opened a window for Nair.
Even if he doesn’t get to play any IPL match with LSG, the crucial consolation of being with a franchise would be priceless.
It has provided him the opportunity to not just practice with the squad, but also pick the brains of the experienced Andy Flower and Gautam Gambir, who form the LSG coaching staff.
“The moment he got picked for the LSG, I sent him a message, saying: ‘Happy for you, Karun. Good luck.
He replied immediately, writing: ‘Thank you, Sir, for giving me a chance with Canara Bank in the DY Patil T20 tournament. My performance there might have got me this contract with the LSG’,” revealed Khan.
There is a view that when international players slip out of form they are usually given a longer rope to regain their touch.
Nair, too, was given sufficient opportunities, but unfortunately, he failed to grab the chances.
Karun Nair with Ekalavya award. (Instagram)
In his last Ranji game, he managed to score 29 and 10 in the two innings in the quarterfinal encounter against Uttar Pradesh in June 2022.
And in his last one-day match, against Bengal in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in December 2021, he scored 25 while he scored 18 in a losing cause against Tamil Nadu in that thrilling final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in November 2021.
Nair got married in January 2020, and a son was born to him in January 2022.
But his luck on the cricket field didn’t change; he was dropped from Karnataka teams, both Ranji Trophy and shorter versions, for the 2022-23 domestic season.
In August 2022, he played the Maharaja T20 Trophy, a state-level tournament.
But there, too, he failed to set the stands on fire, managing just 176 runs, including an unbeaten 91 and two 40-plus, in 12 matches for Mysuru Warriors.
At the month’s end, receiving the Ekalavya Award of the Karnataka government came as some consolation.
A little earlier, he had failed to make heads turn in the three IPL matches he played for the Rajasthan Royals.
Nair has had mixed luck with the Indian team, having made his One-day International (ODI) debut in June 2016, and five months later made his Test debut, surviving the boat mishap in Kerala in between.
Interestingly, he was picked for his Test debut after his friend KL Rahul got injured just before the third Test against England in Mohali. Nair didn’t do anything worthwhile.
Nair was lucky to play his second Test, the fourth of the series in Mumbai, as Ajinkya Rahane got injured, but Nair again failed to grab the opportunity.
Then came the big fifth Test in Chennai, where he smashed 303 not out — the first and so far the only Indian to turn his maiden Test century into a triple delight.
The joy was, however, short-lived, as the selectors and the team management chose to drop Nair in India’s very next Test, the one-off game against Bangladesh, as Rahane returned after getting fit and India picked five bowlers in the team XI.
Nair was also forgotten for the next Test in which Australian spinners spun India to a 333-run defeat in Pune.
Stunned, India strengthened their batting in the next Test in Bangalore, recalling Karun Nair and dropping off-spinner Jayant Yadav.
Karun Nair with Yuvraj Singh. (Instagram)
However, Nair failed to get going in the next two Tests as well.
He was dropped for India’s next assignment, a tour of Sri Lanka, with Rohit Sharma replacing him. Since then it has been a downhill road for Nair, despite having an average of 62.33 in six Tests (374 runs).
Khan feels Karnataka should have persisted with Nair a bit longer.
“When I was with the Karnataka team we gave players security, irrespective of the team we played against. And the boys performed. The moment the assurance is not there, some players often play for themselves and at times teams lose as a result,” he avers.
Nair was so shattered after being axed by Karnataka from all teams in the 2022-23 season that he tweeted in desperation: “Dear cricket, give me one more chance.”
When Khan had that heart-to-heart chat with Karun Nair, he, however, didn’t discuss the tweet, and since then luck seems to have started smiling on the classical right-handed batsman.
Could his recall to an IPL franchise be the next turning point for him?
(The writer has covered cricket for over three decades, based in Delhi. He tweets at @AlwaysCricket)
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