India won the 5th Test at The Oval and the series was drawn 2-2. While the series draw was good, the Indian team had injuries to contend with. Rishabh Pant’s fractured toe kept him out of the 5th Test. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh and Akash Deep also got injured during the series.
A lesser known injury was that of Karun Nair. According to a TOI report, Nair got a minor finger fracture during the 2nd innings of the 5th Test when he was hit by a rising ball.
This means Nair will miss the 2025 Duleep Trophy. Nair has been in good form in domestic cricket lately. He scored 863 runs at 53 for Vidarbha, the Ranji Trophy champions. He was expected to be a key player for Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy. Now he will use this time to recover from the injury.
Next season Nair will be eligible to play for South Zone. He has moved from Vidarbha to his home state Karnataka where he played earlier in his career.
Nair’s return to the Indian team was a great story as he had admitted to being very disappointed after being dropped in 2017. He scored 205 runs in this series, including a fifty in the 1st innings at The Oval. Some have questioned if he can be a long term solution for the number 3 batting position in the Indian team.
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Former India all-rounder Pathan gave Nair a rating of 4 out of 10. He felt Nair lacked consistency and criticized him for getting out at important moments, especially in the Lord’s Test where he had a chance to help India win.
Pathan said on his YouTube channel that Nair didn’t play badly throughout the series but only managed one fifty despite having several chances. He added that cricket gave Nair another chance but he didn’t fully take it, especially in the Lord’s Test.
Pathan also said that Nair struggled against short balls at The Oval, looked uncomfortable on a couple of occasions.He said Nair looked good but then played a bad shot and got out. At The Oval he looked rattled when short balls were bowled to him, so 4.
