London, July 15: It took eight years for Karun Nair to don India jersey again but 25 days into his second coming in Test cricket, the Karnataka batter could well have played his last international game after six consecutive failures in the ongoing away series against England.Coming back to the Indian team after scoring heavily in domestic cricket, Nair had started his UK sojourn on a bright note with a double hundred against England Lions in Canterbury, virtually breaking the selection door.
But after three Tests at Headingley, Edgbaston and Lord’s, Nair has tallied only 131 runs at an average of shade below 22 and it would be extremely difficult for the Gautam Gambhir- helmed team management to ignore the numbers.
Sai Sudharsan, who made his debut at Leeds, looked solid during his second innings’ 30 but when it came to team combination, Nair, who is nearing 34, was given preference because the younger batter has a big future ahead of him.
For Nair, it was a case of now or never. And to be fair to Gambhir and captain Shubman Gill, there was a lot of logic and justification in giving Nair a fair run.
It is not that Nair looked completely out of place in all three games, facing a total of 249 deliveries, but there seemed to be a distinct problem when it came to handling quality pace and seam movement in tandem.
Against Chris Woakes’ pace of early 130s, Nair found it easy to negotiate but when it came to faster Brydon Carse or Jofra Archer, it seemed that he is a trifle late with his reaction time.
