Karun Nair disappointed for not getting selected in ODI squad for South Africa tour

Karun Nair came into the limelight when he became only the second Indian cricketer to score a triple hundred in Test cricket and joined Virender Sehwag in that elite club. The 26-year-old failed to maintain that momentum throughout the year which resulted in exclusion from India’s ODI squad for the South Africa tour.

“I’m disappointed that I didn’t make it to the 17 for the tour of South Africa. The past year, I’ve got a triple hundred and then a few hundreds on the domestic circuit. I thought I had some good knocks backing me. It took me the last couple of days to get over it. It did affect me in the last match, the quarterfinals against Mumbai. I was really unhappy about my mindset in that game. I shouldn’t have allowed my disappointment affect my game,” Nair told TOI.

After scoring a triple century against England last year, Nair faced many up and downs in his career. Three months later, when he played the home series against Australia, he could only manage scores of 26, 0, 23 & 5 in the four innings played over the three Test matches. He failed to join the Indian dressing room again and admitted that he started expecting too much from himself after scoring the triple ton. 

“I started expecting too much from myself. It took me a long time to realize I was being too hard on myself. It came to a point when I had to do something about it and the best thing I could do was to let go.

“I started playing cricket like I did when I was a schoolboy. I started enjoying middling the ball. I’m still working on it because it can’t change in a couple of months. Now, I’m not into numbers, or even if I don’t do well, I know there is another game coming up. In the past year, I have seen the highest of highs and lowest of lows. Good that I have experienced all that in the early stages of my international career. Going forward, this one year will help me improve my game and get me stronger mentally. I’ve learnt unforgettable lessons,” he said.

Nair, who was not part of the Indian cricket team, was busy in playing for Karnataka in Ranji Trophy as he scored 612 runs in seven matches including a 153-run knock in the semifinals against Vidarbha but unfortunately it went in vain as Karnataka lost the game by five runs. He claimed that he learned how to deal with different situations now.

“It doesn’t matter if you score or not, but it is important to be in a happy state of mind. When I’ve done well I was happy, but when I didn’t do well, I questioned myself, I wondered why my hard work wasn’t paying dividends. I was doubting myself. In the last few months, I have learnt to deal with situations better. I’m not overly worried about results. In the last three months, I haven’t had expectations from myself. I just wanted to express myself on the field. I started to focus on the process.”