India’s national cricket team’s 33-year-old batsman Karun Nair has launched a scathing attack on Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee chairman Ajit Agarkar after being dropped from the Test team.
Karun Nair candidly said that he got much better treatment than he deserved from the selection committee and team management on his return to international cricket after more than eight years.
Karun Nair flops in Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025
The right-handed batsman made his comeback to the Indian Test team after a long time during the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against the England national cricket team.
He made his comeback easy with the help of brilliant performances in domestic cricket for Vidarbha. Nair produced back-to-back match-winning performances for Vidarbha across all formats and was instrumental in their third Ranji Trophy win.
He scored 863 runs in 16 innings at an average of 53.93 with four centuries in the Ranji Trophy, forcing the selectors to recall him to the Test team. Nair also looked in incredible form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and scored 779 runs in eight innings.
After the retirement of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Karun Nair emerged as the ideal experienced player whom India hoped would provide stability to the inexperienced Test team.
Nair showed great promise early in the England tour as he scored an incredible 204 in a tour match against the England Lions at Canterbury, but he was unable to repeat his success in the five-match Test series.
After batting at different positions and being dropped in the middle of the series, he could score only 205 runs in 8 innings at an average of 25.62.
After his underwhelming performance, he was dropped from the Test squad for the home series against the West Indies national cricket team, with Ajit Agarkar saying that he expected better performances from Nair.
Obviously, it is quite disappointing – Karun Nair
The Karnataka batsman has once again started his performance in domestic cricket and scored 73 and 8 runs in the first round of Ranji Trophy against Saurashtra. He significantly improved his performance in the second match against Goa and scored 174 not out in the first innings.
Speaking after his incredible performance, Nair said that he was quite disappointed to be dropped after just one series as he deserved more opportunities. He said (as quoted by Indian Express):
“Obviously, it’s quite disappointing. After the last two years, I feel I deserved much better. More than a series.”
Honestly, what could be my next goal? -Karun Nair
Karun Nair further said that there were some members of the Indian team who had a good chat with him upon his return. He said:
“There are some special people in this [Indian] The team who have had good conversations with me about how they felt. that’s about it.”
“That comes to mind. But the other thought would be to do my job, which is to score runs and let people have their opinion.”
A disappointed Karun Nair also said that his only goal is to play for the country, and if he cannot achieve it, then he does not know what to aim for next.
“Honestly, what’s the next goal I can have? I just want to play for the country. If you’re not able to do that, the next thing would be to try and win games for the side you’re playing for.”
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