Indian batsman Karun Nair made his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut in 2013 and in 2014 the Rajasthan-born batter had an impressive IPL season as he scored 330 runs for Rajasthan Royals at a strike rate of 142.24. But unfortunately, the 30-year-old batter failed to carry on his brilliance in IPL and while talking about his performance in the shortest format of the game, Nair said that the reason behind this is that he has never been “the kind of a main player in a team in T20 cricket.”
In IPL, Nair has till now played in 73 matches and scored 1480 runs at a strike rate of 128.36. Nair will take part in the 15th edition of IPL for the Rajasthan Royals franchise.
Nair's take
“In my opinion, the reason behind that is that I’ve never been the kind of a main player in a team in T20 cricket. If you see, whenever I score runs, there’s someone else who scores better in the same match (laughs),” Nair said in a press release issued by IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals.
“…But I’m not really bothered about that at all — all I care about and why I play matches is to help the team win. On a more serious note, why people don’t see me as a T20 specialist is because I’ve been asked to play different kind of roles over the years, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But I’m hoping to have a great season with the Royals and just focus on whatever I’m told to do,” Nair added.
Preparations for IPL 2022
While talking about Rajasthan’s preparations for IPL 2022, Nair feels that they “have a well-balanced side.”
“Obviously a lot of things have changed since when I was here (at the Royals) first, but this team always feels like home to me. We have a well-balanced side, and I’m enjoying getting to know all the guys here. It’s an exciting phase in the history of this franchise and I’m looking forward to playing an exciting brand of cricket, which I know the Royals always strive to do.”
Rajasthan Royals full squad for IPL 2022
Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Arunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie Van Der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell
