In the first unofficial Test against England Lions on 31 May 2025 in Canterbury, Karun Nair played a blistering innings of 204 runs in 281 balls.
His innings with 26 fours and a six told everyone that he is ready to play a big role in India’s Test team.
Fans on Twitter are praising him, and many are saying that in the absence of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Nair will be India’s lead batsman!
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Karun Nair’s explosive comeback
Nair, who is trying to make a comeback in the Test team after 8 years, shut everyone’s mouth with this double century. India’s top order looks a bit weak after Kohli and Rohit retired from Test cricket.
In such a situation, Nair’s innings can prove to be a game-changer. He scored a double century in 272 balls, which was a barrage of shots like cut, drive, pull and reverse sweep. England Lions bowlers looked helpless in front of him.
Nair heard the news of his Test call-up during IPL practice against Punjab Kings and said,
“I was eagerly waiting for this call. Very happy and proud!”
Captain Abhimanyu Easwaran was dismissed for just 8 runs at the start of the innings. After this, Nair made a small partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal, then made big partnerships with Sarfaraz Khan (92 runs) and Dhruv Jurel (94 runs).
A partnership of 181 for the third wicket with Sarfaraz and 195 for the fourth wicket with Jurel put India A in a strong position. Nair’s calm and aggressive batting impressed everyone.
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Nair’s previous performance
Nair’s bat is known for big innings. In the Chennai Test against England in 2016, he scored an unbeaten 303.
In 2015, he scored 328 runs against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy. In 2024, he played an unbeaten innings of 202 runs for Northamptonshire in the County Championship.
He is already in form by scoring 863 runs in 9 matches in Ranji Trophy 2024-25 and 779 runs with 5 centuries in Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Why did fans say that Virat will replace Rohit?
On Twitter, fans are calling Nair the “best contender for number 3”. Someone said, “Nair can replace Kohli!” So someone said, “This innings will rock the Test series!”
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Sai Sudarshan and Abhimanyu Easwaran will now get tough competition from him.
For now, this innings of Nair can get him a place in the playing XI in the India-England Test series starting from June 20.
Fans are confident that Nair will become a new star by anchoring India’s top order.
