The (Mis)Management of Karun Nair

The team for the Test series against West Indies has been announced. Shikhar Dhawan and Karun Nair have been dropped. While the poor form in the red ball format cost Dhawan his place, there seems to be conflict in the thinking of the selection committee and the team management.

In England, when the team management finally decided to play an extra batsman, they decided to give Hanuma Vihari a Test debut rather than play Karun Nair, who had been a part of the initial squad while the former had been called as a backup when the selection committee decided to drop Murali Vijay.

Taking nothing away from Vihari, who on back of some stellar domestic and India-A tours made it to the Indian Team, but were we fair with how we treated Karun Nair? I’m sure this would have made a huge dent in the confidence of the batsman.

The entire England episode did not go well with Gavaskar which made him remark, "I know he has not been your favourite player. You don't want to pick him".

The statement from Gavaskar clearly shows that the selectors had faith in Karun Nair and wanted to give him a fair chance post his brilliant triple century but the team management clearly has other ideas. It seems that the selection committee has realised that and instead of Karun serving drinks or warming the bench, they would rather have him go back and score runs in the domestic circuit and regain his confidence.

Repeating the same mistake?

If you think this is the first time such an incident is happening, you may need to go down the memory lane by a few years.

Ajinkya Rahane went through the same when he toured Australia in 2011-12. Soon after the tour, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman announced their retirements. Cheteshwar Pujara took one place, and out of nowhere came Yuvraj Singh and Rahane was left waiting. He neither got a chance in first-class cricket to score the runs needed for selection nor in the Test side. So much so that when Yuvraj was finally dropped, India picked Ravindra Jadeja, ahead of Rahane.

I hope there is someone talking to Nair right now, explaining to him why he is not part of the Test squad against West Indies and what the future holds for him. Age is on his side and one can only hope that the batsman gets his due.