Karun Nair hoping for a fresh start with the Ranji Trophy

Karun's career has been plagued with untimely dip in form and injuries.

Karun Nair | GettyReplacing the injured Ajinkya Rahane for the 2016 Chennai Test against England, Karun Nair scored a memorable triple hundred for India, an innings showcasing his talent and one that promised a lot for the future. 

However, he struggled badly against quality Australian pacers the very next series and was dropped from the squad thereafter. 

And even though, the right-hand batsman got himself back in the reckoning, picked for the last year's tour of England, he saw Hanuma Vihari leapfrogging him in the pecking order and struggled again with some untimely dip in form and an injury he took time to recover from. 

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But this isn't how the 28-year-old want to be remembered and wishes to let his bat do the talking, with a fresh start from this Ranji Trophy season. 

"You have to move on," Karun told TOI on Friday (December 6), his 28th birthday, before the start of the first game against Tamil Nadu two days later. "The last season I didn't have those many runs and was injured at the wrong time. I was out for one month and that again disrupted the season. I am trying to get back stronger this year. All I can do is get the bat to do the talking."

Karun didn't score as many runs he would've liked in Karnataka's Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 victories. But that was in part due to the bulk of the work done by the team's top-order including the likes of Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul. "I don't think I have batted enough in the last two tournaments," he said. "I haven't got enough opportunities to spend time in the middle. I can't control that because our top order batsmen have done well."

"As long as the team is winning, everyone is happy. I had a couple of opportunities that I didn't make use of. In the Duleep Trophy and Thimmappaiah, I got quite a few runs so... I am happy with the way I am batting. I am not worried. Hopefully, I will get some time in the middle."

Despite a great start to the season, Karun said Karnataka isn't taking anything for granted especially as it contests for one of the five knock-out spots available from the combined 18-team Elite Group. 

"This year is quite hard. We have done well in the previous two tournaments but haven't had that sort of a break where we can have some time off and come back and get going."

"It's a professional game so it's time to switch our minds back to this format, and start this season well. We have a bit of a new team, but we have been playing together so everyone is excited," Karun added. 

"Sometimes it does make a difference when you're playing a big team in the first game (Tamil Nadu). Everyone is up for it. Having said that, the Ranji Trophy rules are such that only five teams from the first two groups make it to the quarterfinals. It's really important to start the tournament well. It becomes harder if you don't start well."

(Inputs from TOI)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 07 Dec, 2019

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