It has been exactly 256 days since Karun Nair became only the second Indian in history to hit a triple-ton in Test cricket.
The Karnataka batsman scored a masterful unbeaten 303 off just 381 deliveries in Chennai as India beat the visiting England by over an innings in the fifth Test late last year.
Since then the 25-year-old has played two more Tests for the country in the 2-1 series win over Steve Smith’s Australia earlier this year.
Such are the highs and lows of cricket that a combined total of 54 runs in those four innings meant that Nair slipped away from the fringes of the Indian team back to the grind of domestic cricket.
The middle-order batsman was not picked in the squad for the recently concluded Test whitewash of Sri Lanka and so huge is the competition for a berth in the Indian batting line-up that the famous triple-century has become a distant memory so soon.
So dire were Nair’s performance with the bat post the triple-ton that his innings of 39 for Delhi Daredevils against the Sunrisers Hyderabad was his highest score in the 18 innings across all formats since that famous day in Chennai.
This is Karun Nair’s highest score in 18 inns across all formats since the triple-century in Chennai Test. #DDvSRH
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) May 2, 2017
The most damning statistic for the classical right-handed batsman is that he has 374 runs in his seven Test innings so far with 303 of them coming in that special innings.
While Virat Kohli’s men were sweeping the Test series against Sri Lanka, Nair was in South Africa on a tour with the India A team.
The Jodhpur-born man was given the captaincy of the A squad and his fighting 90 in the second Test against South Africa A helped the Indians level the two-match series at 1-1.
For now the road back to the Indian team lies once again in the domestic circuit for Nair who still has plenty of time on his side.
The ability to score triple-centuries seemed to come naturally to Nair who broke the record for the highest individual score in a Ranji Trophy final, scoring 328 in Karnataka’s win over Tamil Nadu in 2015.
The Delhi Daredevils man is currently gearing up to represent Mysuru Warriors in the Karnataka Premier League (KPL), the T20 league back in his home state.
New Team, New Season, New Challenges. Looking forward 👍 @starsportsindia #kpl2017 pic.twitter.com/jYA9IJ8sCF
— Karun Nair (@karun126) August 28, 2017
In an interview with the Times of India, the Karnataka batsman was asked if he felt the triple-ton against England had become an overbearing thought.
“Yes, it is getting to a point that I want to tell people to move on because I have bigger and better things to look forward to,” replied Nair.
“I don’t think about it when I’m on the ground because I just shut out everything else and concentrate on my game. But sometimes it does cloud the mind, especially during a lean patch. So, I often tell myself, ‘I’ve worked very hard to get those 303 runs and nobody can take that away from me, so, I have to shut out conversations and concentrate on achieving bigger goals,” he added.
While the cloud of that memorable innings might be hard to shake off in the near future for the talented batsman, he is now fully concentrating on making a return to the Indian national set-up.
It will be interesting to keep an eye on him as he battles it out in the various domestics competitions in the coming months.
