Karun Nair has been rewarded for his prolific run in domestic cricket with a call-up in the India Test squad for the upcoming series against England. The 33-year-old has returned to the Indian Test set-up after eight years.
Nair, who last played a Test in 2017, is going to be a key batter for India in the five-match Test series against England, starting on June 20. He recently hit a double hundred while playing for India A against England Lions in a four-day practice game in Canterbury.
Ahead of the start of the series against England, Karun has made a major revelation. He has revealed that a “prominent Indian cricketer” once advised him to retire from international cricket and play T20 leagues around the world for financial security when he was struggling to make his international comeback.
As per Nair, he didn’t take that ‘easy’ route because he knew he’d regret it later.
“I still remember a prominent Indian cricketer calling me and saying that I should retire, because the money in these leagues would make me secure. It would have been easy to take that route, but I knew that regardless of the money, I would be kicking myself for giving up so easily,” Nair told Mail Sport.
“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. It’s crazy, but deep down, I always knew I was good enough,” he added.
Nair further mentioned that he manifested playing for the national team and now picturing himself in India whites.
“I manifested playing for India. There was a domestic game last year where they played the national anthem and we were standing in a line. I got that feeling of ‘Oh, I need this to happen again’- just picturing myself in Indian whites,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter how many more matches I get to play for India. I just want to enjoy it now, because I didn’t make the most of it before,” he added.
Karun has played just 6 Test matches for India so far, scoring 374 runs with an impressive average of 62.33 and strike rate of 73.91 so far. He has only one century to his name in Test cricket. However, it was the big one as he scored (303 not out) against England in 2016.
