Karnataka should be thanking their stars for managing to sneak into the quarterfinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy but they have some serious issues to address — and pronto — if they are to make the most of their good fortune and extend their run deep into the campaign.
While the batting unit is struggling to fire in unison, their captain - whose own form has been abysmal to say the least - brings his own set of problems to the camp. His poor run for the last two seasons across all formats is weighing down heavily on one of the domestic heavyweights.
Skipper Karun Nair’s dry run with the bat has been going too long to be ignored but he has been handed a long rope despite the right-hander showing few signs of staging a recovery. Nair, the only other Test triple centurion in India besides Virender Sehwag, has looked a pale shadow of the man who played that magnificent knock against England in Chennai in December 2016. In the 2018-19 domestic season, Nair failed in both the Ranji Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy, averaging a mere 25. His returns in the Mushtaq Ali were slightly better, scoring 245 in 12 matches.
The form and confidence further nose-dived last season. In the season-opening Vijay Hazare Trophy, he could muster a meagre 66 runs in nine outings. Then in Mushtaq Ali, he fared slightly better, scoring 203 runs at an average of 33.83 but in the Ranji Trophy, he collected just 366 runs in nine games at a dismal average of 26.14.
The 29-year-old, one of the shining stars of the Karnataka team when they did the double-treble (2013-14 and 2014-15, winning all three domestic titles two seasons in a row), has gone without a century in any format for the side.
Granted that every good batsman goes through a bad phase but in Nair’s case it has extended too long for the generous state selectors to overlook. He doesn’t look the batsman of old when he’s out there in the middle, many a time getting out to shots that he could have avoided. He’s looked tentative and confused with the lack of confidence too apparent. While he has been claiming that he is timing the ball very well in the ‘nets’, it’s not translating into runs in matches.
Adding to the burden is the responsibility of captaincy. Not only does Nair have to work his way back into form, he’s also been tasked with leading a young Karnataka side. With his regular mates KL Rahul, Manish Pandey and Mayank Agarwal on India duty most of the time, the pressure on Nair is indeed big. Maybe, it’s time for the Karnataka selectors to look at someone else for captaincy. Probably groom someone else considering that many seniors won’t be available for a majority of time. Such a move could lighten the load on Nair and possibly help him focus more on his batting considering that he is set to be part of the setup for the knockout stage.
Nair’s captaincy too has been questionable on certain occasions. Even in this edition of Mushtaq Ali, despite being a middle-order batsman, he chose to open in the first two games and when the move backfired, he dropped down the order. It’s not the first time he has trialed it without much success. Also, during last season’s Ranji Trophy, there were times when he made wrong calls regarding bowling changes and field placements.
Karnataka will also have to consider how long do they want to persist with Nair. In the last few years, the selectors have taken calls on benching “underperforming” seniors.
Players like Abhimanyu Mithun, CM Gautam and even an in-form Shreyas Gopal, in the current Mushtaq Ali, were benched either in the disguise of being “rested” or without ascribing any justifiable reason. So why this special treatment for Nair, even taking into account his past credentials?
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