India and Vidarbha Karun Nair is going through a dreamy form at the moment. Nair is breaking all sorts of records in domestic cricket and is knocking hard on the selection doors for Team India in the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Nair finally opened up after his scintillating performances in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, India's domestic 50-over tournament. He still dreams of playing for India one day and that keeps him motivated to perform well.
The 33-year-old just wants to focus on one innings at a time and continue to perform with every opportunity he gets. He believes that hard work is the only way to succeed and he hasn't done anything different so far.
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“The dream is always to play for the country” – Karun Nair
Karun Nair has spoken about his dream of playing international cricket for India and wants to focus on every innings. He wants to do everything in his control and doesn't want to think too far ahead.
“The dream is always to play for the country. So yes, the dream is still alive. That's why we play this game, to play for your country. So the one and only goal was to play for the country,” Karun was quoted by PTI.
“I think this is my third comeback (laughs). And I have to keep doing what I'm doing right now. I keep scoring whenever I can in every game I play. This is the most I can do. Everything else is out of my control,” he added.
“But until it (selection) happens, it's just a dream. It's not there yet. But again, like I said, I'd like to focus on one innings at a time,” revealed the Vidarbha batsman.
“I didn't do anything different” – Karun Nair
Karun Nair was further asked about the things he changed to improve his performance. He replied that only hard work had brought him to this situation and that he had not done anything different. He always had this belief in himself and wanted to have a positive state of mind.
“I didn't do anything different. There is no secret. I think it's just years of hard work and perseverance, you know, putting it all together. And you can probably tell, taking every day as a new one and making sure I respect every innings I play,” said Karun.
When he was in bad shape, he started from scratch and worked hard again. He went on to talk about having a positive thought process even when he wasn't in good form with the bat.
“I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. I think anyone would have those feelings. But I never thought that my career would end. I just thought where does it go? what do i do How did this happen?” remarked Karun.
“It takes a while to get out of that phase and understand what's going on and then what you should do. So, I told myself I had to start from scratch again. And give it a few years and see where it goes and then I can decide what to do. So that was my thought process.
Karun Nair in the Vijay Hazare Trophy
Karun Nair has scored 752 runs in eight matches at a staggering average of 752 and a strike rate of 125.96. The right-hander has hit 5 hundreds and 1 fifty in the seven innings he has batted so far in the tournament.
Nair is the highest run scorer of the tournament so far. He also holds the record for most runs scored without being dismissed in List A cricket. His strong performances keep him in good shape to be considered for India's 2025 Champions Trophy squad.
Karun Nair has played 6 Tests and 2 ODIs for India. He has scored 374 runs at an average of 62.33 in Tests with a triple century to his name. In two ODIs, he scored 46 runs at an average of 23.