We are in the courtyard of the Taj Hotel in central London – the same place that for the last seven years Karun Nair associated with the end of his international career.
Nair, now 33, was part of the India squad for the Test series against England in 2018. He was reduced to carrying drinks for the first four Tests but with England 3-1 up going into the dead rubber at The Oval, felt he would get his chance. It was during the meeting inside this hotel before the fifth Test that Nair discovered he wasn’t playing when the team was put on the big screen. The selectors opted for Hanuma Vihari, who was only called into the squad before the fourth Test. To this day, Nair admits that no one explained why he was snubbed.
’It felt like someone had hit me into the ground and I didn’t know where to go,’ he tells Mail Sport. ‘I’ll never forget that hour when the news hit me. I didn’t know what to do or who to talk to so I went for a walk all the way to Oxford Street and started to buy anything and everything. I was never the sort of guy who was after expensive stuff but it dawned on me that why am I waiting for things to happen when I have no control. I got a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes because I could. I’d never done that before. For me, it was never about money. My interest was purely cricket and wanting to play for India. But I needed to make myself feel happy and I stupidly thought that would make me happy. I went up and down Oxford Street buying whatever I felt like and came back with bags after bags. There was a game left but that was my tour done and it was a case of getting through it and going home. Every day was brutal. I wasn’t picked after that,’ says Nair.
Until now. Seven years on, the boy who grew up idolising Rahul Dravid is poised to make a remarkable comeback against England when the series starts at Headingley on Friday. With Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma retiring from Test cricket last month, Nair’s double hundred against the England Lions for India A have put him in the driving seat to take up one of the vacant positions. When we meet on the day he arrived in London, there is another shopping bag with Nair but this time, it’s a simpler purchase – just some shorts from Zara for the summer ahead. ‘It’s getting hotter,’ Nair insists. ‘And we are here till August right,’ with the confidence of a man who is determined to grasp this opportunity with both hands.
Perhaps an Indian summer awaits. Last Wednesday marked his official return to the Indian dressing room with coach Gautam Gambhir praising him for his comeback, in a video on BCCI TV. ‘No matter the runs you have got – most importantly, that never say die attitude, that never-giving-up attitude is something which has got you back into the team. That is something which is inspiring for this entire world,’ Gambhir said.
Over the last couple of years, I have kept in touch with Nair throughout this journey – a relationship that began via a mutual friend who got in touch as he wanted to take him to Old Trafford to watch his beloved Manchester United.
Nair is set make a remarkable Test comeback against England on Friday after seven years
We are in the courtyard of the Taj Hotel, which Nair associates with the end of his international career
The India star admitted he once cried at his wife’s birthday – the toughest moment of his life
The tale of Nair’s return to international cricket is one of remarkable resilience. There were times in those years after 2018 where he stopped watching cricket because he couldn’t cope.
‘If I watched, I would get irritated’ he says. The runs dried up and his confidence was shot.
The ‘lowest of lows’ was not getting picked for his state team Karnataka in 2022.
Again, he struggled to get a reason from the decision-makers and there were no takers elsewhere.
It was his wife’s birthday and Nair held it in while they went out to celebrate but began to cry as soon as they came home. He famously tweeted: ‘Dear cricket, give me one more chance’ on December 10 2022 – a post that has gone increasingly viral in recent years.
‘My wife was like what are you doing but I told her this is how I feel,’ says Nair. ‘That was probably the toughest moment of my life. This time, it felt like my world was over. I had no idea what to do next. I was asking myself what am I supposed to do? I have a family and my son was recently born but I was lost. Mentally, I was gone,’ he reveals.
Yet there was never any thought of calling it quits even if some former Indian cricketers advised him out of care to retire and make a living from T20 leagues.
‘I still remember a prominent Indian cricketer calling me and saying you need to retire because the money in these leagues would make me secure.’ Nair says. ‘It would have been easy to do but I knew that regardless of the money, I would be kicking myself for giving up that easily.’
Karun Nair was part of the India squad for the Test series against England in 2016 and 2018
The 33-year-old excelled for Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League earlier this year
He got a call from an ex-agent asking him if he was available to play three games for Northants
Given the sheer level of competition to play for India, he understood the message but promised that he would give himself another few years. For the man who is still one of only two Indians to ever hit a triple-hundred in a Test, the desire to add to his six Test caps was burning still.
‘I was never going to give up on playing for India again. That was just over two years ago and look where we are now,’ he insists. ‘It’s crazy but deep down, I knew I was good enough.’
It started again with a commute of three hours every alternate day to get to net practice with one of his former coaches on the outskirts of Bangalore in early 2023. A WhatsApp group called Comeback Season was created but Nair admits that it was tough to stay motivated. ‘Some days, I would ask myself what’s the point because the reality was that I couldn’t really see the end goal,’ he says.
He kept at it though. Desperate for a change of scene from Karnataka and his hometown Bangalore after he didn’t get an IPL deal in 2023, he tried to get a county deal in England but no one was interested and he was wrongly informed that he wouldn’t be eligible.
‘I kept trying and no one offered me a contract. After 2018, I always wanted to show that I could play in England,’ he says. Nair settled with playing club cricket at Burbage & ER in East Wiltshire where it would just be the one game on a Saturday. He enjoyed his time there but knew he was too strong for that level.
‘From where I was, it was so tough mentally. I’d wake up asking myself how I’d ended up here but I had to suck it up and play and train. It’s like going from playing Champions League to below non-league in the space of a few years,’ he says. ‘Other players were telling me I should be playing county cricket and asking me why the f*** am I playing here.’
Karun Nair still remains one of only two Indian cricketers to ever hit a triple-hundred in a Test
Karun Nair repeatedly tried to get a county deal in England but no one was interested in 2023
‘I manifested playing for India. There was a domestic game last year where they played the national anthem… and I got that feeling of ‘Oh, I need this to happen again,’ Karun Nair said
Nair asked the club if he could go back to India to play in the Karnataka Premier League – a televised T20 competition – in a bid to strengthen his IPL chances for the 2024 season and to their credit, they obliged even though a month of the season was left.
It was while back in India that he got the call from an ex-agent asking him if he was available to play three games for Northamptonshire at the end of the English season. The offer was just £500 per game. ‘It was next to nothing but I didn’t care because that was the opportunity I was desperate for. I went straight to Birmingham, had one net session and the day after, scored 78 at Edgbaston,’ he says. A week later, he got 150 against Surrey at The Oval – the same ground where he thought he was going to get his chance in 2018.
‘I remember standing on the balcony and soaking it in and thinking about everything that had happened five years before and how it had to come back full circle. With the happiness involved, it’s my most satisfying innings because I knew it was all about coming here and scoring runs. When you score runs in county cricket, people in India take note and listen. People like Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly all messaged me to say congratulations.’
When he went unsold in the 2024 IPL auction, Northants came calling again for him for the English summer last year, with Nair only getting a deal to play seven games across two months.
Again, the money wasn’t great but they agreed on £1000 per game and for Nair, who knew India would be in England the following summer, it was a case of seizing the opportunity even though he wanted to play for the full season. Across ten County Championship matches in two seasons for Northants, he scored 736 runs at 56.61, including a double hundred against Glamorgan. Little surprise that chief selector Ajit Ajarkar highlighted his familiarity with English conditions as a key reason for his selection.
Nair admits that towards the end of last year, he was manifesting the feeling of representing the national team again. Across formats, he was firing and a change of team in India helped too, scoring 863 runs at 53.93 in a title-winning Ranji Trophy for Vidarbha in the 2024-25 Indian domestic campaign before excelling for Delhi Capitals in the IPL earlier this year. In his first IPL game since 2022, he scored 89 off just 40 deliveries against Mumbai Indians.
England will compete against India in a five-match Test series at home starting at Headingley
India coach Gambhir praised Karun Nair for his comeback after his return to the dressing room
‘I manifested playing for India. There was a domestic game last year where they played the national anthem and we were standing in a line and I got that feeling of ‘Oh, I need this to happen again’ and picturing myself in Indian whites. Less than a year later, we’re here,’ he says, with a beaming smile – even if time in the nets at Beckenham facing the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh has been exhilarating to say the least.
When the announcement came in May that he was part of the squad, it was somewhat expected. There was a mad dash from his last IPL game in Jaipur on May 24 to spending five hours at home before leaving for England but he wouldn’t change it for the world.
Is there a feeling of making up for list time?
‘Not really. It doesn’t matter how many more matches I get to play for India. I want enjoy it because I didn’t make the most of it before,’ Nair says. ‘Even now when he gets stopped for pictures, he doesn’t mind because ‘there were years where no one wanted any of this’.
So is this a different Karun to the one who played his last Test for India in 2017?
‘I can’t say one thing that I’ve fundamentally changed. It’s a combination of consistently working hard even if it feels like I’m going nowhere. In my body and mind over the last couple of years, I feel like I’ve always wanted to be in the India team and now I’m back. More than anything, it’s that self-belief.’
India, as a whole, could do that with belief too – in front of them lies an opportunity to win a first series in England since 2007 and a chance for Shubman Gill and the next generation to make history.
Nair grew up idolising Dravid and is poised to make a remarkable comeback against England
Shubman Gill could captain India to a first Test cricket series victory in England since 2007
‘It will come down primarily on how we bat in these conditions and how England cope with our bowlers,’ Nair says.
Mind you, he has a Test average of 62.33, including that 303 against England in 2016.
Watch the clip back from that day in Chennai and the joy of Kohli on the balcony and Anil Kumble photographing the moment from the pavilion sum up exactly what it means. Nair has already made history but it’s time for more.
Even now, seeing first-hand the smiles of Jasprit Bumrah and KL Rahul with Nair before they go out for dinner offer a brief snapshot of just how pleasing his story is across the board.
‘I’ve known him for a long time and the months that he spent here in the UK, playing cricket, I know how hard and lonely it was,’ Rahul told BCCI TV. ‘For him, to be able to do all that and come back into the Test team is special for him and his family and for friends like us who have seen his journey, it’s very inspiring as well’
Regardless of how Nair goes this summer, there will be plenty more of that love and appreciation even from those who don’t know him. It was England where he felt such pain but it was also England which helped to relay the foundations, and it is England where Comeback Season for Karun Nair will be complete.
