Karun Nair's childhood coach, Vijay Madyalkar has broken his silence on his former pupil's snub from the West Indies Test series. Nair wasn't able to find a place in India's 15-member squad for their upcoming Test assignment. The 34-year-old wasn't able to impress much in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against England, scoring 205 in 8 innings, including just one half-century.
Madyalkar feels that Nair deserved one more chance and could have done well in the upcoming West Indies series as he is well-suited for Indian conditions. He further stated that it isn't easy to bat in English conditions and Nair did the best he could during the series.
“I felt very bad for him. He was deserving one more chance, that is what I feel. But, again, it is the selectors’ call. They think in a different way,” Madyalkar told IndiaToday.in.
“He got a chance in tough conditions in England. In those conditions, what best one can do, he did it. He scored all those runs in India in the lead-up to his comeback. I think they should have given him a chance in India. He is best-suited for Indian conditions, as of now. In England, the conditions were not always easy for batting,” he added.
Padikkal gets the chance over Nair
In Nair's place, Devdutt Padikkal was given a chance in India's squad for the West Indies Tests. This came after the latter recently gave a brilliant batting performance for India A in the first unofficial Test against Australia A. He scored a terrific century to help the Men in Blue in drawing the match and is likely to have won the selectors over with the knock.
Agarkar's remarks on Nair's snub
Selection committee chief Ajit Agarkar, who announced India's squad for the West Indies series, remarked that they had expected more from Nair in England and added that it is not possible for them to give 15-20 chances to every player.
“We expected more from Karun Nair. It can’t be just one innings. Padikkal offers more. We would like to give 15-20 chances to everyone, but it is not possible in these circumstances,” Agarkar told reporters in a press-conference.
India's squad for West Indies Tests: Shubman Gill (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (vc), Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Narayan Jagadeesan (wk), Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav.