Veteran India batter Karun Nair continued his average form in the ongoing series against England with his inning of 14 runs in the Men in Blue's second innings of the Lord's Test. The 33-year-old who made a comeback to India's Test set-up after almost eight years, so far hasn't had a series to remember.
After playing a decent knock of 40 runs in the first innings of the third Test, Nair failed to contribute much to India's chase of 193 on the second occasion and was dismissed by Brydon Carse for just 14 runs. The batter was actually looking to leave the ball, however it cut inside on the last moment and ended up costing Nair his wicket.
Karthik was critical of Nair's batting display at Lord's
Former India cricketer Dinesh Karthik was not at all impressed with Nair's batting display and remarked that the veteran batter got dismissed in a very ordinary way despite looking solid at the crease.
"Completely out of the blue, he was looking solid as always. The ball didn't do much, just came in straight. I don't know what he was thinking. Karun Nair expected the ball to probably swing away, but it didn't, just held its line, kept coming straight. Pretty ordinary leave, Brydon Carse loving it, it's an important wicket," Karthik said while commentating.
Another former India cricketer who criticized Nair was Anil Kumble, who even labelled the 33-year-old's dismissal as a 'brain fade'. He added that even though the batter did a lot of hard work, he failed to make it count when it mattered the most.
"India had a great chance; they did really well to restrict England to 192. Yashasvi Jaiswal played a poor shot. Once Karun Nair got out, and then Shubman Gill, it's slight advantage to England. It was a great opportunity for Karun; he did all the hard work. He did look good, I don't know, probably it was a brain fade," Kumble said on air.
It remains to be seen if Nair will be given more chances in the ongoing series especially with the likes of Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Dhruv Jurel waiting on the sidelines. The 33-year-old has not played any memorable knock so far in the series so it will be interesting to see if he will be able to step up if given the chance in the fourth Test.