Indian star snubbed from Champions Trophy 2025 squad achieves massive milestone, makes big statement for selection

During Wednesday's Ranji Trophy final versus Kerala at the VCA Stadium, Jamtha in Nagpur, Vidarbha batter Karun Nair achieved a huge milestone by surpassing the 8,000 First-Class run mark. Nair achieved the milestone in his 114th First-Class match when he reached 10 runs following Vidarbha was put to bat first by Sachin Baby's Kerala. Following Kerala's reduction of the hosts to 24 for three, Nair entered the batting order at number five in the thirteenth over, opting for a shuffle.

33-year-old Nair, who made a comeback to the limelight following the Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign last month, scoring 752 runs and five hundred in seven innings, was also among the runs in the second phase of the Ranji Trophy. In Vidarbha's last league match against Hyderabad, Nair hit a century, and he supported it with his 22nd First Class century in the team's quarterfinal victory over Tamil Nadu.

ALSO READ: Australia's left-arm pacer announces retirement from 50-over cricket during ICC Champions Trophy 2025, says 'I'm taking a step in a slightly different direction but...'

ALSO READ: 6,4,4! Vintage Sachin Tendulkar gets Mumbai crowd roaring, leads India to comfortable 9-wicket win over Eoin Morgan's England; watch video

The former Karnataka batter has scored over 650 runs in 15 innings, including three hundred and a half-century, placing him third among Vidarbha's best scorers this season.

Since making two appearances for Karnataka between 2013 and 2015 and for Vidarbha, who came second to Mumbai last year, Nair has participated in four Ranji finals. In his first First-Class season in 2013–14, Nair participated in the championship game as Karnataka defeated Maharashtra. As Karnataka retained their crown the following season, Nair was named Player of the Match in the summit game after smashing a lengthy 328 against Tamil Nadu.

Although Nair's career has totalled more than 3700 runs for Karnataka, his brief stint with the India Test team from 2016 to 2017 saw him join Virender Sehwag as the nation's second Test triple-centurion, scoring an undefeated 303 against England in Chennai.

At the time of writing Karun Nair has joined a massive 180-run stand with Danish Malewar. While he is batting on 64 runs, Malewar has already completed his century. This partnership has revived the Vidarbha innings as earlier they lost their first wicket on 0, second on 11 and by the time they put 24 runs on board, they had lost their third wicket as well.