Upbeat Karun eyes India comeback

Karun Nair shot into the spotlight with an unbeaten triple century against England in the Chennai Test December last. Following that fantastic knock, Nair failed to produce any innings of substance and a string of poor scores saw the selectors overlook him for the Sri Lanka tour.

The Karnataka batsman was named the skipper of the four-day India 'A' squad for the two-match series against South Africa 'A'. It was a perfect platform for Nair to strike form and the right-handed batsman showed signs of regaining his touch with a fighting unbeaten 90 that guided India to a six-wicket victory in the second match.

Under pressure to perform, the match-winning knock was a much needed one, felt Nair. "It was quite a fighting 90 because, obviously chasing 225 in the last innings on a fourth day wicket is not easy. Also, I had not got runs before that. So many things were playing in my mind. And I had to really grind it out. It was a tough wicket as well...slow and low, not like South Africa. I enjoyed it," explained Nair.

Having taken the axing in his stride, Nair now is focused on getting back into the national set up. "Obviously everyone is disappointed when you don't make it to the Test squad but I took it in my stride. I thought I had to look forward and keep working hard and make use of
all the opportunities I get. It doesn't matter where I play, I just need to be getting runs and hopefully if I keep getting runs, I will be back," he offered.

Nair last featured for India in the four-match Test series against Australia and mustered just 54 runs from three games. In the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League, the 25-year-old failed to make a mark, scoring 281 from 14 games at an average of 21.61 with just one half-century.

"I was not making use of my starts. I didn't do anything different in the training sessions and it was all about working hard. In any sport, you tend to be more consistent when things are going well for you and it's just about getting into the good phase by working hard," he said.

Apart from dealing with his slump in form, Nair had the additional challenge of captaincy and the youngster said he is at the right stage to don the leader's role.

"I think I'm at a good age to captain. It was an amazing experience to captain, especially in the IPL. To captain an IPL side was something I had never even dreamt of. I was really privileged and happy that the Delhi Daredevils management showed faith in me and appointed me captain. I really enjoyed it in the India 'A' series as well. It was a bit hard initially to handle players from different states but I have learnt a lot and the experience will help in the future," he said.