Karun Nair expresses his desire to wear India whites again

The 26-year-old Karnataka right-handed batsman Karun Nair, who will replace Virat Kohli in the Indian Test squad in the historic Test match against Afghanistan scheduled to be played in Bengaluru from June 14-18, has expressed his satisfaction and excitement to wear the white jersey again and described it as honor and privilege. The Karnataka batsman, whose name only comes for the contention of Test cricket, has noted that he is working hard to be a part of all the formats. 

"I am really excited to be wearing those whites again and representing my country has always been an honor and privilege. I am really looking forward to it," Nair told IANS. 

"I have worked really hard over the last one and half years. My form in the IPL and the way I have batted, I consider myself an all-format player and it's just about getting those opportunities and making the most of them. It's just that finding a spot in the one day team is difficult. I need to do better to get those opportunities and I am on the right track. I will do everything I can with the bat to make sure I play all formats," he added. 

Nair, who scored an unbeaten 303 against England in the fifth Test in Chennai in December 2016, will lead the India A side in the four-day matches in the UK. However, for India A's One-Day tri-series assignment in the UK, he has not been picked. The middle-order batsman looked happy on his captaincy responsibility. 

"I am really happy to be leading the team. It's a great opportunity for us as a team to be playing in England and learning how to play cricket in England," said Nair, who played his last Test against Australia in Dharamsala last year before being dropped for sacrificing his spot to Rohit Sharma.

"We need to learn to adjust to those conditions. For me as a captain, we have a talented bunch of youngsters who are really exciting," he added.

Talking about Kings XI Punjab, who are experiencing a threat of being pulled themselves out for a playoffs berth by losing five of their last six matches, Nair said that it's time to come up with a well-combined effort at the business end of the season. 

"It's almost the business end of the tournament. So we need to get our act together.” 

The promising youngster observed that the matches they have won only because of complete team performance and didn’t forget to mention the opening duo of Chris Gayle and KL Rahul’s consistency with the bat.

“The matches that we have won, we have completely played as a team. Individual performances have helped like K.L. Rahul has batted exceptionally well in some of the games. Chris (Gayle) has also batted superbly in few games. But it has been a collective effort overall," reckoned Karun Nair.

"It's been brilliant under Ash. He has done exceedingly well as a captain and to be captaining in the IPL for the first time, he has done exceptionally well. He has always been a smart cricketer if you look at his bowling he always has different plans for different batsmen and he can change it anytime during the game. He takes wise and quick decisions which is definitely needed in T20 cricket. I hope we win more games under his captaincy," he concluded.