Karun Nair has opened up about the widely shared photo of him with KL Rahul from the England tour. It turned out to be an on-and-off series, where he managed only 205 runs at an average of 25.62, with a lone half-century in the final Test at The Oval.
Making his international return on the England tour, Nair was even dropped from the XI for the Old Trafford Test after a below-par showing in the earlier matches. The right-handed batter drew criticism for not making the most of his second stint in the national side.
Meanwhile, a picture of Nair went viral on social media, where he can be seen crying at Lord’s balcony, and Rahul putting his hand on his teammate’s shoulders, consoling him.
However, Nair debunked it and called it an AI-created picture and said they were indeed sitting on the balcony, but called it a fake image.
“I think that’s an AI-created picture. I don’t think that happened. Obviously, we were sitting in the balcony, but that picture is not real at all. I think we should stop looking at these things. I don’t think as players you can stop these things from happening, but from my end, I don’t think there’s any truth in that picture,” Nair told RevzSports.
“I’m really happy for KL Rahul”
Rahul had a memorable England tour as he filled the shoes of a senior batter, scoring 532 runs in 10 innings at an impressive average of 53.20. He made two centuries and two fifties, consistently providing solid starts as an opener.
Nair was all praise for Rahul for scoring over 500 runs as an opener, where he had a tough job to face the new ball, and said he made that look easy.
“It was amazing to see the way he approached this whole series. He looked like he came there with a plan. For an opener to get over 500 runs in England, facing the new ball day in and day out is surely not easy, and he made it look very easy, at least to us. The kind of starts he gave the team was amazing. I’m really happy for him, and I’m sure he’ll keep doing these things, recreating these starts. He looks like a player who knows his game really well at the moment, and he’s just going out there and having fun and batting the way he knows how to bat,” Nair added.