Middle-order batter Karun Nair offered cryptic commentary on India’s pitiable batting conditions in the second Test against South Africa at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati. Without specifying, he poetically
wrote how there is a ‘sting’ in not playing in ‘some conditions’ that he ‘knows by heart’.
India stumbled to 201/10 in the first innings in Guwahati. They started well in the 489-run chase, with a 65-run opening stand, but things began to unravel after the second wicket for 95 runs. India lost six batters for 27 runs in around 11 overs, before a 72-run partnership between tailender Kuldeep Yadav and all-rounder Washington Sundar stabilised things for some time.
“Some conditions carry a feel you know by heart — and the silence of not being out there adds its own sting,” Nair wrote on X.
The same pattern of collapses has been a theme of this team. In the first Test, albeit in much more difficult conditions, they were bowled out for 189 and 93, respectively, to lose by 30 runs.
Nair was reportedly in the fray to return to the team for the second match after captain Shubman Gill picked up a serious neck injury in the first Test. However, India chose to replace him with Sai Sudharsan, who was already with the squad, and chose to rope in all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy to substitute Axar Patel.
The right-hander was part of the Indian team during the summer tour of England, his first call-up after eight years. He got four opportunities to play, but managed only 205 runs at an average of 25.63.
As India returned home, Nair was dropped, but Sudharsan was retained. Come the first Test against South Africa, the Gautam Gambhir-led management didn’t pick the latter either, and went with a left-field option at number three in Washington Sundar, before Sudharsan came back in the second Test.
Nair has been in excellent form in first-class cricket for Karnataka in the meantime, with a 233, a 174, and two more fifty-plus scores to his name in the last five Ranji Trophy matches.
