Cricket: Karun Nair Reveals ‘Prominent Indian Cricketer’ Asked Him To Retire before Test recall
Nair chooses representing his country over cash
Karun Nair’s journey over the last decade is a testament to resilience. Back in 2016-17, the right-handed batsman was tipped to be the next star player for India after smashing a stunning triple century against the Three Lions in Chennai.
However, after that, he suffered a significant dip in form and was left on the bench for the Men in Blues’ 2018 tour to England before he was dropped from the national squad altogether midway through the same series.
Further poor performances followed, and by 2020, Nair was unable even to earn a spot in his state team, Karnataka. By that point, he was already in his late 20s, and many had written him off from making a comeback to the Indian team.
The 33-year-old worked tirelessly in the domestic scene over the next few years and continued producing impressive performances in the T20 format, as we saw in the recently completed Indian Premier League, all of which contributed to his recall to India for their series this month.
Before heading to England, though, Nair revealed that he was advised to give up his dream of representing his country and was told to focus on the financial security offered by the mega-money T20 franchise cricket teams across the globe. He said:
"I still remember a prominent Indian cricketer calling me and saying you need to retire because the money in these leagues would make me secure. It would have been easy to do, but I knew that regardless of the money, I would be kicking myself for giving up that easily. I was never going to give up on playing for India again. That was just over two years ago and look where we are now.”
After being snubbed by Karnataka, Nair joined Vidarbha for the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy, where he ended the competition as the fourth-highest run scorer with 863 runs in 16 innings, including four centuries and two half-centuries, while averaging 53.93.
Nair struggles to make immediate impact upon India recall
India kicked off their first of five Test matches against England at Headingley last Friday, and with one day left to play, the match is delicately poised, with the Men in Blue needing to defend 350 runs on Tuesday.
New vice-captain Rishabh Pant has been excellent in the match, scoring back-to-back centuries in his two innings, while Yashasvi Jaiswal, skipper Shubman Gill and opener KL Rahul also notched up tons.
However, India’s bottom half has struggled to make an impact on the match with the bat, with none of their final six batsman managing to score more than 25 runs in either innings. Nair was dismissed for a four-ball duck in his first knock and added just 20 runs in the second innings.
Despite this, the batter is not believed to be at risk of the axe just yet, as head coach Gautam Gambhir was vocal about his support for Nair in the lead-up to the competition and mentioned that he would give the 33-year-old a fair run in the Test side, citing his valuable experience in English conditions.
