'Will you give me another chance?' KCA decision that changed fate of Malayali player Karun Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Karun Nair, who decided to quit the Karnataka Ranji Trophy team two seasons ago, had two options in front of him before the start of the season: Either play for Kerala or choose Vidarbha.

Karun had expressed his interest to the Kerala Cricket Association, but KCA was not in the mood to include foreign players in the team. Moreover, there was no dearth of prolific batsmen in the Kerala squad. With this, Karun opted for Vidarbha, and what happened next was historic.

Born in a Malayali family in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, Karun came to Bengaluru with hopes to break it to the highest level in cricket. He started playing in the Karnataka team from the under-15 level. In 2016, he debuted in the Indian ODI team during the tour of Zimbabwe. Karun later made his test debut against England in Mohali in November of the same year. In the third Test of his career in Chennai, Karun shocked all by scoring a triple century (303*) against mighty England.

Apart from Sehwag, Karun is the only Indian cricketer to score a triple century in Tests. But later came a series of shoddy performances, where he scored only 54 runs in three Tests against Australia. Karun was thus dropped from the Indian team and not recalled since.

The story started changing again when Karun returned to the pitch to regain his lost form.

“Will you give me another chance?” This post from Karun on social media just before the tournament was discussed in the cricket circles.

Karun scored 1500 runs for Vidarbha in various formats this season alone. This season, he scored 863 runs in the Ranji Trophy, 779 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and 255 runs in the Syed Mushtaq Trophy.

With Vidarbha winning the Ranji Trophy under his guidance, Karun has made the message clear. The 33-year-old batsman awaits his national callup soon.