Karun Nair attributed his teams’ poor showing with the bat to a lack of application and insisted that the decision to bat first was a good one despite being bowled out midway through the third session.

Karnataka were bundled out for 166, their second-lowest score this season, on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy clash against Himachal Pradesh at the SDNR Wadiyar stadium. As the stand-in skipper assessed, Karnataka’s dismal score took shape largely because the batsmen were unable to keep a steady head on their shoulders. 

“The wicket is a good one to bat on,” Nair asserted after the day’s play. “That’s why we decided to bat first. It was moving a bit in the air but there was no seam movement. Credit to their bowlers for sticking to such tight lines for the better part of our innings. There were no demons on this wicket,” he added. 

While the rest of the batters barely made a difference to the scorecard, Nair came up with a crucial 81 despite not getting into a rhythm with a steady partner at the other end. 

“We lost too many wickets and we didn’t have enough partnerships. We should have applied ourselves better. As is always the case, when you don’t have partnerships, you don’t set big totals,” he offered.

Talking about his own batting, which has suffered a sizable portion of this year, Nair said: “I am not ‘relieved’ with this innings.

“I was batting decently even before. I was just finding ways to get out, and I did that today too. I need to get those bits out of my game and get some more runs.”

Kanwar Abhinay, the pacer who picked up five wickets, said his side too were considering batting first on this wicket and opined that containing batsmen at this level fetches you wickets consistently. “It’s about sticking to a plan and waiting for them to make a mistake. They all do. It’s just a matter of time,” he said assuredly.