Dear Cricket, Give me one more chance. This journey was quite long but now it is over for Karun Nair because finally cricket has given him one more chance. He was missing from cricket for 8 years - despite scoring a triple century against England at home, and now once again he has got a chance to do all this and that too against England. This time he not only has to play well but also has to secure his place in the Indian test team, and now as the days near it is expected that his name will certainly be in the playing XI of the first test match against England. The wait was too long for Nayar and in these years he also got the advice that he should retire. Almost 2 years ago a prominent Indian cricketer told him to quit and said that he should focus on overseas T20 leagues.
Nair said,
"I still remember a prominent Indian cricketer calling me and telling me that I should retire because the money I would earn in these leagues would keep me safe. It would have been easy to do that, but I knew that despite the money, I would keep cursing myself for giving up so easily."
If we look back, then it would have been better for Nayar not to take that decision because 2025 is his year now, according to his performances.
Further Nair said,
"I will never stop playing for India again. That was only two years ago, and look where we are now. It's crazy, but deep inside, I knew I was good enough."
This 33-year-old player's comeback did not happen only on the back of a solid domestic season. He scored 863 runs at an average of 53.93 in the Ranji Trophy tournament in which his team clinched the title, he scored five centuries in eight innings in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, at an average of 389.50. A performance that also earned him a place in the Champions Trophy squad earlier this year. But this comeback is the result of years of wait and hard work which is now being seen in 2025, during which his consistent performance kept him on the radar, even though he did not find a place in the main team.
Not only this, earlier this month, Nair scored a double century in India A's first match - which now means we can say that he has secured his place for the first Test. The first test between India and England will be played in Leeds from 20 June.