On Friday at Leeds, Karun Nair could end his eight-year wait and make a comeback into India’s Test XI.It will be a full-circle moment for the 33-year-old, who was snubbed during the 2018 India tour of England by the then Team India management — captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri — as he spent the entire five-match series on the bench.Before the fifth Test, there was a chance he could get a game, but the team management and selectors flew in Hanuma Vihari — who was not part of the original squad — from India and handed him a Test debut.The snub took a toll on Nair, whose form plummeted to the point where, in 2022, he was dropped from Karnataka’s squad across all three formats.“It felt like someone had hit me into the ground and I didn’t know where to go,” Nair told Mail Sport about his 2018 experience in England.Nair further revealed how he went on a shopping spree after being told he wasn’t playing, and how lonely he felt at that moment.“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 — why am I waiting for things to happen when I have no control?” he said.“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 and bags.“There was a game left, but that was my tour done. It was just a case of getting through it and going home. Every day was brutal. I wasn’t picked after that,” said Nair.Seven years down the line, he is again on English shores. He has earned his way back with heaps of runs — be it in domestic cricket or during his two county stints.His resilience has been hailed by current Team India coach Gautam Gambhir as well.“No matter the runs you have got — most importantly, that never-say-die attitude, that never-give-up attitude is something that has got you back into the team. That is something which is inspiring for the entire world,” Gambhir said in a video on BCCI TV.
