Three years to date, Karun Nair was training with the Indian team ahead of the fourth Test match against England. It was his second game with the national side. His debut in Mohali didn’t go as planned and neither did the one in Mumbai, but come the third Test in Chennai, the books made space for his name as he became only the second Indian to a triple-century in Tests.
The fast hands, the fluidity of his feet, a distinct lack of hesitation in stroke-making, that smile through the helmet grille... it was all anyone could talk about for a while. But that got old fast. After three more Tests, Nair found himself out of the side. The only tangible memory of the 303 not out remained on his car’s number plate!
“It has been a long time (since the triple-century),” said Nair after Karnataka’s practice match at the RSI Ground in Bengaluru on Friday.
“It has been close to three years. When people remind me of it, it is quite hard to think about it but you have to move on and get on with it. The last season I didn’t have those many runs and I got an injury at the wrong time. I was out for one month and that again disrupted the season. I am trying to get back stronger this year. All I can do is get back and let the bat do the talking.”
Back to the domestic grind, Nair bides his time, waiting for a chance to return to where he felt he belonged. This year, he reckoned, was his chance, but while the likes of KL Rahul, Manish Pandey and more recently Mayank Agarwal established themselves, he didn’t show up on the radar. His last two tournaments for Karnataka certainly didn’t help his cause.
After a chart-topping 375 runs from four innings in Duleep Trophy for India Red in October, Nair scored an abysmal 66 runs in six innings in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy and 203 runs in eight innings in the 20-over Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Yet, Karnataka continued to persist with the stout right-hander in the middle order. So much so that they named him as the skipper for their first Ranji Trophy game of the season against Tamil Nadu from December 9.
“I don’t think I have batted enough in the last two tournaments. I haven’t got enough opportunities to go in there and spend time. Yeah, I have got a couple of opportunities that I haven’t made use of but on the whole I don’t think I have gotten enough chances where I have got enough time... I am happy with the way I am batting,” he added.
The numbers, clearly, mean little to Nair.
He also had the concern of getting his team to acclimatise to the four-day format in quick time. “Yeah, this year is quite hard. We have done really well in the previous two tournaments but we haven’t had that sort of a break where we can have some time off and come back and get going. It’s a professional game so it’s time to switch our minds to this format, and start this season well,” said the right-hander who turned 28 on the day.
Nair also sandbagged middle-order issues and the lack of experience - sans an injured Prasidh Krishna and A Mithun - in the bowling department. As far as he was concerned, Karnataka held the aces ahead of the game against Tamil Nadu. “Sometimes it makes a difference when you’re playing a big team in the first game,” he opined. “Everyone is up for it. Having said that, Ranji Trophy rules this season are different this season so it is really important to start the tournament well. It becomes harder if you don’t start well.”