Bengaluru: Sitting on the sidelines is tough enough. Sitting on the sidelines after a prolific Ranji Trophy season can be even tougher.
Coming off a superb Ranji campaign, wherein he scored 699 runs at an average of 58.25 and helped Karnataka to their first final in 11 years, Nair was expected to walk straight into the South Zone XI, but was controversially benched in both the Duleep Trophy semifinal and the ongoing final.
The move from the South Zone think tank drew criticism, and with the side staring at a massive first-innings deficit (242/6 in 80 overs; trailing by 466 after day three) against Ishan Kishan’s East Zone in the final, the noise only grew louder.
India international Nair, however, stayed mum on his South Zone snub, made it clear about not wanting to get “involved in those things” and was happy to spend time batting in the middle.
Nair made the trip from Chennai to Bengaluru to play for KSCA Secretary’s XI against Chhattisgarh at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in the Dr (Capt) K Thimmappiah memorial tournament, the Karnataka State Cricket Association’s (KSCA) flagship four-day competition.
“Obviously disappointing but everyone has their reasons. I don’t want to comment on it (Duleep Trophy). I don’t want to get involved in those things. At the end of the day for me, it’s just about playing matches and scoring lots of runs,” Nair told DH after the second day’s play.
After the semifinal win over North Zone, South skipper Tilak Varma said that Nair was “unlucky” to miss out as they needed a left-hander in the middle-order with two left-arm spinners in North Zone’s eleven.
Nair also declined to comment when asked whether the match-ups were becoming overused.
Turning up for Secretary’s XI, Karun (104) made a statement hundred, driving his side to a commanding position, and now hopes to build on it with the Ranji Trophy kicking off next month.
“Really happy to get some time in the middle, I was very much looking forward to score some runs. It gave me a lot of confidence and hope it helps me through the season.
Karun though is all excited to see his former captain Vinay Kumar as the Karnataka head coach and hopes to bring trophies back to the State.
“It’s been amazing (under Vinay), we’ve been having specialist batting camps, we also had camps for fast bowlers and spinners. It has been amazing to have Vinay back and he’s been brilliant in guiding us through so far.”
“Really looking forward to the season. Hopefully we can bring back trophies this season just like how we did when Vinay was the captain.”