Out-of-favour India batter Karun Nair scored 779 runs across 8 innings at an average of 389.50 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25. Legendary Sachin Tendulkar made a supportive social media post. But none of it helped. His dream of donning the Indian jersey again after eight years was dashed when the national selectors led by Ajit Agarkar and skipper Rohit Sharma sat together to pick India’s squads for the Champions Trophy and the ODIs against England. There was no place in the Indian team for the 33-year-old Vidarbha captain, who even had an average of 752 before the final match of the domestic tournament.

Speaking on Nair exclusion, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar pointed out the reason why the player failed to find a place in the team.

“Where should they fit him? You could have taken the spot of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer. KL will perform the role of second wicetkeeper-batter for this team and his performance during 2023 World Cup was good. I don’t think Indian cricket team has played much ODI cricket after that. Shreyas Iyer has also performed well in the format. That is why Karun Nair has not been picked,” Gavaskar told Sports Tak.

“If his form during Ranji Trophy remains same, then it will be hard for Team India to not pick him during the upcoming Test tour of England,” he added.

Continuous questions are being asked by the BCCI about the relevance for scoring heavily in domestic cricket if a player does not get selected on that count, and about the honesty of the team management’s decision to place significance on domestic matches. But in truth, as Ajit Agarkar explained, it was indeed tough to include Karun in a squad of 15 in the current situation.

“Yeah, it is tough. Those are really special performances. I mean, someone who averages – 700-plus, 750-plus (before Vijay Hazare final). We did have a chat (about Karun),” Agarkar said in the press meet to announce the Indian squads on Saturday.

“But at the moment, to find a spot in this team is very difficult. I mean, look at the guys who’ve been picked. All average well in excess of mid-40s.

“So, unfortunately, you can’t fit everyone in. It’s a squad of 15. But those performances (like Karun) certainly make you take notice,” he added.

(With PTI Inputs)

Exploiting his rich vein of form, Karun Nair slammed his fourth successive hundred, fifth in total of this edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, as Vidarbha outclassed Rajasthan by nine wickets to move into the semifinals of the premier domestic 50-over tournament in Vadodara on Sunday. Vidarbha will face Maharashtra in the semifinal on Thursday while the other last-four match will see Haryana, a two-wicket winner over Gujarat, facing Karnataka on Wednesday. However, the day’s protagonist was Karun, who continued his red-hot form in this iteration of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, striking his fifth hundred overall – a whirlwind unbeaten 82-ball 122 (13×4, 5×6) – which was also his fourth successive ton in the last five innings.

He is now on par with former Karnataka teammate Devdutt Padikkal, former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara and ex-South African batter Alviro Petersen as batters with four successive List A hundreds.

The record for most consecutive List A hundreds currently stands in the name of Tamil Nadu’s Narayan Jagadeesan, who smashed five centuries on the trot in the 2022-23 edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

The 33-year-old Karun now has 664 runs from eight matches at an astonishing average of 664.

In the day’s match, Karun had able support from fellow centurion Dhruv Shorey (118 not out, 131b, 10×4, 3×6) as they added 200 runs for the unbroken second wicket in just over 29 overs, propelling Vidarbha past the target of 291 in 43.3 overs.

Coming in at one down, Karun just had to build on the splendid 92-run start to the chase given by Shorey and Yash Rathod (39) and he did that job to perfection.

Earlier, several Rajasthan batters made starts but none of them actually converted them into a bigger score.

Kartik Sharma (62, 61b, 2×4, 4×6) and Shubham Garhwal (59, 59b, 5×4, 4×6) were the main run-getters and then there were scattered scores such as a 31 (14b) by Deepak Chahar, a 45 (49b) by Deepak Hooda and a 32 (45b) by skipper Mahipal Lomror.

Medium pacer Yash Thakur (4/39) helped Vidarbha restrict their rivals to a sub-300 total.

Haryana squeeze through

Haryana survived a fine spell by India leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi (4/46) as they made heavy weather of the chase of a seemingly easy 197 set by Gujarat.

Earlier, Hemang Patel made 54 (62b) but Anuj Thakral and Nishant Sindhu took six wickets equally between them to derail Gujarat.

Himanshu Rana, who made 66 off 89 balls, anchored Haryana’s chase and they then rode on bits and pieces contribution from the rest of the batters to reach home.

However, Gujarat skipper Axar Patel, who is in the India squad for the T20I series against England, had a poor outing, making just three with the bat and going wicketless in 10 overs in which he conceded 41 runs.

File photo of Karun Nair.© AFP