Karun Nair talks about his slump after the 303 vs England; says I was being too hard on myself

Karun said, “I’m disappointed that I didn’t make it to the 17 for the tour of South Africa.

Karun Nair celebrates his triple hundred against England last year

Karun Nair came into limelight as he slammed a triple century (303*) against England in 2016. However, the next year was abysmal for the Karnataka lad as he suffered a drop in form against Australia and has not been in the Indian dressing room for over a year.

I started expecting too much from myself. It took me a long time to realise 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,” Nair said while speaking to TOI.

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,” he says.

Nair became the second Indian after Virender Sehwag to make a triple century for India in Tests.

Nair said, “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.

Stressing on the requirement of balancing success and failure, he said, “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.”

Karun Nair also missed the boat to South Africa, as he was overlooked in the 17 man squad for the 3 Test and six ODI match series in January-February, 2018.

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,” he says.

Karun signed off by saying, “I was really unhappy about my mindset in that game. I shouldn’t have allowed my disappointment affect my game.

 

 

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 25 Dec, 2017

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