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Karun, after failing to earn a place in the Indian team despite scoring mountains of runs in domestic cricket, has now taken IPL 2025 by storm to give himself another chance to complete his dream of making a comeback for the Men in Blue.
Karun Nair belted 89 off 40 against MI in his first match of IPL 2025. (PTI Photo)
On December 10, 2022, Karun Nair posted a tweet which read, “Dear cricket, give me one more chance,” and it caught the attention of advertent followers of the game, and a few scribes as well. Little did anyone know that this tweet would mark the start of a new era for Karun, who, despite being only one of the two Indian batters to have scored a triple century in Test cricket, fell down the pecking order.
Karun made his Test debut for India against England in Mohali on November 26, 2016, and in the first innings of his third Test, he went on to play an unbeaten knock of 303 runs against the Alastair Cook-led side at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai to enter his name in the history books. For a cricketer who has scored a triple century in only his third game, sky should’ve been the limit in an ideal world.
It wasn’t the case for Karun.
The batter was dropped from the Indian team after failing to fire in the next three Tests against Australia at home in the first quarter of 2017 and then never got a chance to play at the highest level for the Men in Blue again.
Karun expressed his frustration on a few occasions for not getting a long rope, but it didn’t help, and then his inconsistent performances only made the matter worse. But during all this while as well, his desire to make a grand comeback never faded away, and after a point, he made an honest request to the game itself, publicly, to give him another chance, and things changed.
He switched from Karnataka to Vidarbha and came fully prepared to take the 2024-25 season by storm, and he managed to achieve the objective as well.
He first made headlines for his red-hot form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where, in nine matches, with the help of five centuries and one fifty, he scored 779 runs to finish as the leading run scorer. His effort, however, went in vain, as neither did he get a chance to make India comeback nor did his side manage to lift the title.
The 33-year-old right-handed batter, who became only the second Indian to score a triple century in Test cricket, however, didn’t let the disappointment affect him and tried to maintain his form in the second phase of the Ranji Trophy, which proved to be productive as well.
The veteran of six Tests and two ODIs for India scored a century in the first innings of the quarterfinal played against Tamil Nadu and registered scores of 86 and 135 in the final against Kerala. His super show with the bat helped the Akshay Wadkar-led side win the premier domestic tournament for the third time.
Karun’s outstanding performance in the 2024-25 domestic season helped him make headlines and launched him back on the India selection radar.
To ensure he remains among the top contenders when the Indian selection committee meets to select the Test squad for the England Test series, Karun is continuing to make the right noises. Irrespective of the format.
On Sunday, during an IPL 2025 match between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians, Karun showed that he is here to stay and his performances in the domestic season weren’t a fluke.
After warming the bench for four matches, Karun got a chance to play his first Indian Premier League (IPL) match after three years on Sunday, and in Delhi he made the most of the opportunity by scoring 89 runs from just 40 balls.
He came out to bat at No. 3 in the 206-run chase against MI, which featured the likes of India captain Rohit Sharma, T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav and premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who won the ICC Cricketer of the Year award for 2024.
The game against MI was a perfect chance for Nair to showcase his skill, and he was fully ready to grab the chance with both hands. The DC’s impact player took MI bowlers to cleaners and smashed Trent Boult and Bumrah to all corners of the ground in the powerplay. He got his innings underway by scoring three fours against Boult in the second over of the run chase, and then in the fourth over, he hit Bumrah for two boundaries, which took everyone present at the iconic stadium in Delhi by surprise.
But it was just a trailer of what was to come.
In the last over of the powerplay, Bumrah was welcomed with a six by Karun, and then he smacked him for a four on the third ball and another maximum in the fifth delivery. The swashbuckling show helped Karun complete his first IPL fifty after seven years in just 22 balls, and he continued to make a mockery of MI bowlers after the fielding restrictions were lifted.
Even though his effort didn’t translate into DC maintaining their perfect start to the season, he made sure that the majority of the post-match discussions were centered around his knock.
The best part about Karun’s knock on Sunday was not the runs he scored but the confidence he was carrying while taking on some of the best bowlers of present times and how much clarity he had while batting.
Gutted at his team’s defeat, Karun said he would like to extend his red-hot form.
Nair, who was not part of DC’s first-choice playing XI in the first four matches, got an opportunity on Sunday because of an unfortunate injury to Faf du Plessis, and he made it count.
His 89-run knock at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground has definitely sealed a spot for him in DC’s playing XI for at least the next few matches, and if he continues to build on the strong show, then on current form, he might end up being part of India’s touring party for the five-match Test series in England.
IPL has in the past helped launch many a careers and Karun will be hoping to join the list.
While many may oppose the idea of how the IPL form can lead to a selection in the Test team, there are always expectations, and the greatest example in recent times is Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Jaiswal, after scoring 628 runs in IPL 2023 for Rajasthan Royals, was picked for the West Indies tour, and from there on, he never looked back. Obviously, Jaiswal had good numbers in domestic cricket as well, which backed his case, but then the same goes for Nair as well, who was way above the rest in the 2024-25 season.
