Veteran India batter Karun Nair was not picked in the playing XI for the South Zone side for a second straight Duleep Trophy game this season. After being snubbed for the semifinal against North Zone last week, Nair was once again left out of the XI for the final against East Zone. Nair, who has played 10 Tests for India and is the most experienced player in the current South Zone squad, responded with both a century and a pointed message.
Ignored for the finale at the Chepauk, Nair showed up at the KSCA’s pre-season warm-up game, featuring for Secretary XI against Chhattisgarh, and notched up a century. The knock underlined Nair’s form and raised questions over South Zone’s decision to leave out an experienced batter of his stature, especially with the team now facing the daunting task of matching East Zone’s monumental 708 over the next three days.
“Inexplicable would be an understatement,” he wrote on X in response to a social media post that described his snub as “inexplicable.”
Why was Karun Nair not picked?
While South Zone did not reveal the reason for leaving Nair out of the final against East Zone, captain Tilak Varma had said his exclusion from the semifinal against North Zone was down to a tactical decision. South Zone had picked Kodimela Himateja in his place.
“Karun is just unlucky. He has scored a lot of runs in domestic seasons,” Tilak had said while addressing the media at the CoE. “I have chosen Himateja in place of Karun as they have good left-arm spinners. So we wanted a leftie in the middle order. He has also scored a decent amount of runs in domestic cricket. I was just backing him. As a youngster, he also has a good career. At the same time, it is very unfortunate for Karun.”
Himateja, however, did not make an impact in the semifinal, failing to score a single run. He was subsequently dropped for the final, with Devdutt Padikkal taking his place.
