What was Karun Nair up to before IPL comeback knock against Mumbai Indians
It was in December 2022 that Karun Nair had famously posted on his Twitter handle: “Dear cricket, give me one more chance.” Nair, who has had his fair share of heartbreaks in the sport, finally got a chance in the Indian Premier League 2025 match against the Mumbai Indians. And he sure made it count, scoring a 40-ball 89 for his team Delhi Capitals as they chased Mumbai Indians’ target of 206. The chase fell 12 runs short, but it reminded the world what Nair can do.
Playing in his first IPL game in nearly three years (he last featured for Rajasthan Royals in 2022), Nair scored his first IPL half-century 2520 days after his last one (that’s nearly seven years). He had been picked up for a price of Rs 50 lakh Delhi in the IPL auction, but did not find a spot in the Playing XI for Delhi Capitals for the first four games.
Karun Nair of Delhi Capitals acknowledges the crowd during their IPL 2025 match against Mumbai Indians. (Sportzpics for IPL)
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In the last few years, Nair has seen plenty of professional turmoil. This despite the right-handed batter going down in hory books as only the second Indian batter to score a triple century in Test cricket, after Virender Sehwag.
The batter had to move from Karnataka to Vidarbha at the start of the 2023-24 domestic season after finding himself out of contention for Karnataka. The switch paid rich dividends, he piled on 779 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy at an average of 389.50 and 863 runs in the Ranji Trophy, leading Vidarbha to the title in the 2024/25 season. To top it off, there was also the 255 runs he scored at a strike rate of over 170 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024/25.
Nair also turned out for Northamptonshire in 10 County Championship matches across two seasons, where he scored 736 runs at 56.61.
“Honestly, I had the confidence that I’ve played [IPL] before and I know how it’s going to be, and it’s nothing different that I’m going to be facing… (it wasn’t) anything new. So, in my mind, it was just about going out there and giving myself a few balls and just getting used to the speed of the game again and the atmosphere,” Nair said after his knock against Mumbai on Sunday evening.
