Karun Nair, after piling on runs in domestic cricket, has returned to the Indian Test side. However, since coming back in, although he looked in good touch with his majestic driving of the cricket ball, he could not convert that into a substantial score. Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra pointed at the fact of Nair’s barren runs.
“I would say give Karun Nair one more chance for sure, because this is now Karun Nair’s final chance. He played earlier, scored a triple century, and then got dropped. It was slightly unfair at that time,” Nair said on his YouTube channel.
“Then he scored a lot of runs and returned to the team. He asked cricket to give him a second chance. He went to Vidarbha, and cricket gave him a second chance. However, at some stage, that story will also end, and this is the match. In the first two matches, we have seen glimpses that he can bat well, but he hasn’t scored too many runs,” he observed.
In the second Test at Edgbaston Sai Sudharsan was axed from the side to bring in Washington Sundar and Nair was promoted to number three. “He was kept and Sai Sudharsan was dropped. I would say give him a minimum of one more Test match. Then it will be six innings. You can take a call after six innings. When you are giving a chance to a player, err on the side of giving one extra game than one fewer. Comebacks don’t happen easily. Give him enough chances to fail or succeed,” Chopra said.
In addition to Nair, the other change that was made to the lineup was bringing in Nitish Kumar Reddy. Although Reddy can bowl and bat he is not as effective a bowler as Shardul Thakur. “He was kept and Sai Sudharsan was dropped. I would say give him a minimum of one more Test match. Then it will be six innings. You can take a call after six innings. When you are giving a chance to a player, err on the side of giving one extra game than one fewer. Comebacks don’t happen easily. Give him enough chances to fail or succeed,” he said.
