Karun is the modern face of Indian cricket
Karun Nair is not yet a household name in England but a generation ago, India’s triple centurion was likely to have been anonymous in his homeland, too, at least among cricket supporters of the national team.
The reason for this is that Nair, like his fellow century-maker in Chennai, KL Rahul, hails from Karnataka. Indian cricket may be inclusive now but 30 years ago Karnataka was a backwater more famous for its spices than its cricketers. Any batting or bowling talent the state did have was unlikely to have been considered for national honours, the selectors rarely straying from the main centres of Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore and Madras.
Where once the caste system was the biggest impediment for talent rising to the top in India, with leading teams comprising maharajahs and the well to do, geography has been almost as limiting. But with the rise of nationalism and name changes to India’s major cities, Mumbai replacing Bombay and Chennai usurping Madras etc, has also come a spatial widening of the talent net - and teams like England have played their part.
It has not come without complaint though, with scores of England cricketers over the years moaning about playing matches, mostly one-day internationals, in places they had never heard of and where five star hotels were, and still are, wishful thinking. Places like Gwalior, Kanpur, Kochi, Gauhati, Dharmasala, Jullundur, Jamshedpur and Ranchi are a time warp away from India’s main cities and will never win popularity contests from visiting players. Yet taking international cricket there since the 1980s has played a crucial part in inspiring the likes of Nair and Rahul, along with the countless millions of budding cricketers who don’t make the grade.
That increased talent pool has benefitted India enormously with the likes of Nair, who came into this series for the injured Ajinkya Rahane, seamlessly fitting in. It is also the main reason, along with a pace attack that now possesses real speed and bite, why India are about to set a record for going unbeaten in Tests, 18 in a row providing England don’t suddenly pull an unexpected rabbit out of the bag in Chennai.
Another way in which Nair is the modern face of India, at least with respect to cricket, is from the type of shots he played. Although able to play long innings, as exemplified by his triple hundreds in this match and for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy final last year, Nair has all the strokes culled from T20 as well, such as reverse-sweeps and uppercuts over the wicket-keeper. He played them all, too, much to the chagrin of England’s bowlers.
Nair’s coming of age benefits India in another way. Due to the power of their cricket-mad population, a market that can be measured in the billions (of people as well as dollars), India are in great demand as international opponents due to the high value they confer on the TV rights of other countries.
As such, they play a lot of cricket and need a large squad of talented players to maintain standards. Which means that once everyone is fit again that Nair will compete with Rahane and Rohit Sharma, both fine batsmen, for a place in India’s middle-order. You don’t need motivational speeches from captain or coach when competition for places is that strong. Nair went from 71 to 303 not out on day four (Reuters) Nair looks a calm, organised player, but was aided enormously by the clement pitch, the easiest to bat upon in the whole series. Whether the cyclone which struck Chennai a week before the Test had any effect on this is not certain but surfaces like that, in which a first innings is still going after tea on the fourth day, is too anodyne for Test cricket.
Mostly, the pitches this series have offered a good balance between bat and ball, the best talents from either discipline able to thrive if on top of their game. It is that balance which MCC tinkers with whenever it makes changes to the Laws, pulling levers in a way the Chancellor of the Exchequer does with the economy, through tax changes in his Budget.
Pitches supersede all that well-meaning interference though and remain the single most important factor between Test cricket being a fascinating spectator sport or a bore. Not that this game is yet a nailed on draw. As captains down the years would have drummed into their players - you only have to bowl a side out cheaply once to win the game. THE INDEPENDENT