Nair’s fall a reminder how to handle young heroes
MUMBAI : The biggest story to come out of India’s sensational victory in Australia is how their cricket system is nurturing and helping their second line of players to reach full potential. Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar and T Natarajan stepped up and showed they belonged in the international arena. All came into the Test team as injury replacements and performed in spectacular fashion. How the Indian cricket system handles them, as the main players return, will be key to their future growth. It’s won’t be easy to keep them motivated as opportunities will be limited to a game here and there.
When England last played a Test in India, in 2016, there was a similar success story—karun Nair. He dominated media headlines in that Test after becoming only the second Indian batsman, after Virender Sehwag, to score a triple century. Four years on, he has been reduced to a passing mention while highlighting how his unbeaten 303 helped India take a 282-run lead even after England scored 477.
As India and England begin a contest afresh, Nair’s career is at the crossroads. In perennial form slump for the last two seasons, after poor returns in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament last month, he has been relieved of the Karnataka captaincy.
So, what went wrong with the triple centurion?
The very next Test after his triple hundred, Nair found himself out of the playing XI. The 303* came in his third Test. He has played only three more
Tests. What probably took the fight out of Nair was being selected in the original squad for the 2018 England tour, but when the chance to be included in the playing eleven came in the final Test at the Oval, the selectors and team management decided to get Hanuman Vihari and play him, leaving Nair on the bench.
It’s been all downhill since then. Various reasons are being given for Nair’s slump. Officials of his long-time Bengaluru club, Vultures Cricket Club, believe the snub in England pulled him down mentally. Karnataka State Cricket Association secretary, Santosh Menon, who used to run VCC when Nair joined in 2008-09, says: “I don’t think there is anything wrong with his batting as of today. Probably he is a little bogged down mentally after what happened to him in England; Hanuma Vihari went ahead of him. Sometimes certain things can impact you. Then his IPL stint also didn’t go well. Knowing him, I am confident he will make a big comeback,” said Menon.