After 3005 days, Karun Nair’s eyesight on Test XI will equal to Dinesh Karthik’s unwanted records
Karun Nair Team India: The news is that if nothing special happens, Karun Nair will return to India’s playing XI for the Handingley Test against England and he is fully prepared for this challenge. There is no doubt that his return to Test XI is the result of his firm intentions and hard work, but there are many other stories in Indian cricket in which the return was made but the result was not very fun.
In the record of return to the Test team, there are two examples after more than 17 years of years at the top. George Gun of England did not play only 4 Tests in his records between 2 March 1912 to 10 January 1930, ie 6524 days, but only 4 more Tests were added to their records.
Pakistan’s Unis Ahmed played just 4 Tests in his entire Test career of more than 17 years. The funny thing is that two of these Tests played in 1969 and two left, returning to Test cricket in 1987. He stayed out of Test playing XI for a total of 6319 days. Karun Nair is not equaling any of these records, but he is definitely joining the club of cricketers who stayed away from Test cricket 3000 or more days.
Karun Nair’s last Test for India was in Dharamshala against Australia. The Test ended on March 28, 2017 and if he plays in Headingley as expected, he will make a record of staying away from Test cricket for 3005 days.
* For India, so far only three players have returned to Test playing XI after being out of Test team for more than 3000 days:
– Jaydev Unadkat was out of Test cricket between 21 December 2010 to 21 December 2022 i.e. for 4384 days.
– Dinesh Karthik was out of Test cricket between 22 January 2010 to 13 June 2018 i.e. 3065 days.
– Parthiv Patel was out of Test cricket between August 12, 2008 to 25 November 2016 i.e. 3028 days.
Incidentally, none of them made a very big or successful Test career after their return. Jaydev Unadkat was able to play only 3 Tests and take a total of 3 wickets (not a single wicket in the last two Tests). Similarly, Dinesh Karthik also failed in his return. Add only 3 more Tests in their records and scored only 25 runs in 5 innings played and two of them did not even open their account.
Parthiv Patel’s return was somewhat different and an interesting anecdote compared to these two. More than 8 years of his last Test and four years after his last international match, wicketkeeper Parthiv returned to Test XI in Mohali in November 2016. The funny thing is that he made the record of the youngest wicketkeeper of Test cricket when he played his first Test in 2002 at the age of 17 years and 153 days. Now in the return Test in Mohali, he was the second oldest cricketer in the team. Although he was invited to play Tests after the regular wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha was injured, but when Lokesh Rahul got hurt on the eve of the Test, he also got an opener role.
Parthiv took full advantage of this opportunity. He was partners in the fall of 5 wickets in the Tests and scored 42 runs in the first innings playing the English bowlers with great confidence. In the second innings, he made a faster 50. India won the Test. India needed only 103 runs to win and Parthiv scored 67* runs off just 54 balls. Even then, after making a comeback, Parthiv played only 5 Tests including Mohali.
Before Karun Nair, only Virender Sehwag scored 300 in the Test for India. Even then, he could not make any special test career for himself. That is why when he took him in the England Tour team this year, it is a great success for him. He was also in the team that went to England in 2018 but he has bitter memories of that tour. He sat on the bench during all the 5 Tests of the series.
When India won the third Test of the series, he was still 1-2 in the series by that time. In such a situation, the BCCI sent Prithvi Shaw and Hanuma Vihari to join the team to further strengthen the batting. Even when Hardik Pandya was dropped from the fifth Test team of Oval, captain Virat Kohli trusted Vihari and Karun became only tourists who watch the Test.
Now a special thing before the Handingley Test is Karun Nair to return to Test XI after more than 8 years. A big challenge is waiting for them. By the way, they know a lot of return art. He was also dropped from the Ranji team of Karnataka but he returned. In 2023, he was unsold in the IPL auction and even when he tried to get the contract to play county cricket after that he was not found. In IPL 2024, there were unusual again. Even then, he returned and played for Northamptonshire in the English county season in 2024 and was bought by Delhi Capitals for IPL 2025.
Before the IPL 2025 season, there was only a discussion that they are not in any scheme of the Delhi team and are the players to complete the count in the team. Even then returned. When I got a chance, after playing for Rajasthan Royals in 2022, played their first IPL matches and after 1077 days, returning to the IPL, scored a brilliant 89 runs in 40 balls and showed their class.
Now they are returning once again and perhaps this is the biggest and special return of his cricket career. At the age of 33, his international cricket career is getting a lifeline. In July 2016, after his ODI debut, he survived, not knowing to swim, after overturning the boat in the Pampa River in Kerala in a prayer tour in the temple. This river is famous for its depth and overturned when the boat was close to the temple (Aranmula). The boat had more than 100 leagues out of which 6 died and many remained missing. Karun Nair was among those who were saved. Now another challenge is in front of them.
