Less than two months ago, the 25-year-old middle-order batsman Karun Nair was on top of the world as he became the second Indian batsman after legendary opener Virender Sehwag to cross the three-hundred run mark at the international stage. Nair achieved the feat against England at Chennai during his innings of 303 not out and at that time would have thought that he has secured his spot in the playing XI.
However, chances of him making it to the playing XI against Bangladesh look bleak as both coach Anil Kumble and captain Virat Kohli have hinted at dropping Karun Nair. While addressing the media today, Virat Kohli said, “One game doesn’t overshadow 2 years of hard work, Ajinkya Rahane is the most solid batsman of our team in the Test format.”
Yesterday, Anil Kumble made a similar remark when he said even though it’s good to see that Nair made the most of his opportunity, all know what Rahane has done for the team. “We still haven’t thought about the combination but it’s nice that Karun took his opportunity and did what he did in Chennai. It is fantastic for a young cricketer to come in and score a triple-hundred.But we all know what Ajinkya has done for this team. His performances have been phenomenal across conditions. It is nice that somebody, who came in to replace Ajinkya because of the injury in Mumbai, took three or four innings and was able to score a three-hundred. It’s nice to have to have that kind of contribution and that kind of ability from the youngsters,” he added.
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Actually, Karun Nair got a chance in the Indian side only because India’s vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane was injured and had to be rested but now that he is fit, India will have no other option but to leave Nair on bench to make way for Rahane.
This won’t be the first incident when a batsman will be dropped despite scoring a triple-hundred in Test cricket as in the past Andy Sandha, Len Hutton and most notably, Inzamam-ul-Haq were made to sit out in the very next Test after reaching the 300-run mark.