“There are these thoughts and dreams in the head” - Karun Nair breaks silence on India comeback after dream run in VHT 2024-25

Indian batter Karun Nair has opened up about his non-selection in the national squad for the upcoming 2025 Champions Trophy. He stormed into contention after a historic 2024-25 Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign for Vidarbha, scoring 779 runs in eight innings at an average of 389.50.

With five hundreds in eight innings, Karun Nair became a candidate for the Indian middle order, though the selection committee took a different route. The incumbent middle-order pair of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer were preferred instead, but the selection committee and team management have noticed Nair's recent exploits.

The right-handed batter played two ODIs for India during the 2016 tour of Zimbabwe. He scored 46 runs in two innings but faded out from the player pool after a while and was not considered for selection until now.

Nair recently remarked that representing the national team is a great motivational tool for performing well in the domestic circuit.

“Obviously, the possibility of an India comeback has to be on your mind. If you want to play for the country, you have to keep dreaming. There are these thoughts and dreams in the head but that’s just motivation," Nair said in an interview with the Hindustan Times.

“The mindset comes from the hunger to keep getting better every single day when I go out to play. To not be happy with what you’ve done in the past to keep looking forward to doing better in the future," he added.

Karun Nair's imperious campaign came to an end in the final of the tournament in Vadodara. Karnataka pacer Prasidh Krishna castled him for 27 runs as Vidarbha fell short of the 349-run target by 36 runs.

"I would be lying if I said it didn’t cross my mind" - Karun Nair on thinking of records during his stellar run

The 33-year-old broke a slew of records during his memorable campaign. Following his ton against Uttar Pradesh, he broke the record for most runs in Lis-A cricket without being dismissed, overtaking James Franklin in the process. The new record saw him score 542 runs in between two dismissals.

“The games were coming so thick and fast that I didn’t get too much time to think about all these things. But I would be lying if I said it didn’t cross my mind. It did," Nair said in the same interview.

“Whenever I got a hundred, I used to think ‘Oh my God, what’s happening!?’ It was crazy, almost surreal. Something I have not experienced before but something that I’ll keep very close to myself. I want to keep repeating that feeling over and over again," he added.

Chief selector Ajit Agarkar claimed during the recent press conference that Nair will be considered in the future if there is any loss of form or injuries to the selected players.