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Karun Nair’s Bradmanesque exploits in domestic cricket in recent years earned him a return to the Indian Test team after eight years. However, this came after the most testing time of his career, which the 33-year-old batter picks as the toughest he has had to endure, describing it as “quite a dark place.”
“In terms of incidents, I would say, it was quite a dark place at the end of 2022. Very emotional phase for me. I think the toughest time for me. Even tougher than 2018, or whatever, whenever that was,” Nair said during an interaction with R Ashwin on his Youtube channel.
Nair, India’s only triple centurion in Test cricket besides Virender Sehwag, is now on the brink of a remarkable comeback.
On Friday, there is a strong possibility that he will be part of India’s playing XI for the first Test against England, beginning in Leeds.
Though he has emerged stronger, he wouldn’t want to go back to the time when he often wondered why he was dropped from the team a few games after scoring a memorable triple hundred on Test debut against England, in 2016.
“No. I don’t want to be where I was a couple of years ago, quite honestly.” He added, “I think at the moment, at least I am very grateful. Like you said, I have gotten past that complaining stage. Very grateful to be in the situation that I am and I just treat every day as something that’s given to me, and I am living my life and doing what I love.
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“I am very grateful to everyone that has been part of my journey in the last 2-3 years at least. I have understood to value things. I have understood to value each moment and just treat every single day as a new day.” Being dropped from the Indian team, without any explanation, was perplexing for Nair during that dark phase.
“Honestly, I couldn’t understand what was happening. Because after the 300 in Chennai, after the Australia series, I think the next series was in Sri Lanka in 2017.
“I wasn’t part of that squad either. And from then on, I couldn’t understand what was happening. Then I had to go back in domestic cricket.” Recalling his difficult phase, Nair felt he could have cemented his place in the Indian team with big scores in a Test series against Australia.
“I had no clue what was happening. All I knew was my name wasn’t there. I couldn’t understand how it wasn’t there.
“But if I look back and think that there is one side of me saying that ‘yes, I didn’t get too many opportunities’. But the other way I would also think is the four innings that I played against Australia, and I got a couple of starts.
“If I had just converted those starts into bigger scores, maybe I wouldn’t be in this position or had to have gone through that.” Asked what he was doing at that point in time, Nair said, “Just figuring out how I should go about things and what I should be doing.
“Obviously, I was a lot younger at that time and couldn’t probably control what was running in my head like I am able to do today. So, basically, just a confused mind and was trying so hard to get back that I think I just kept getting worse.
“But I had a great season that year in domestic cricket and I was able to come back like I said in the 2018 season. And then again, went back there. Didn’t have too many opportunities.”
After moving from Karnataka to Vidarbha for the 2023–24 domestic season, Nair revived his career with a prolific run. In the 2024–25 season, he amassed 863 runs in nine matches at an average of 54, helping Vidarbha clinch its third Ranji Trophy title.
In his first season with Vidarbha, he scored 690 runs in 10 games.
His good domestic run saw him return to the Indian Premier League (IPL) after three years, this season.
Nair’s social media post, “Cricket, please give me another chance,” went viral and underscored his determination to return to the national side.
Before his recall, Nair was named in the India A squad for the series against England Lions, a precursor to the senior series.
