And a hero is BORN!

Exactly 42 days back there was an article published by espncricinfo titled: India weighs up Nair Vs Pandya debate (https://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-england-2016-17/content/story/1064979.html), the gist of the article was who should debut at Rajkot facing the English test team in the first test match of the series. The article went on to describe the pros and cons of selecting either of them and giving them the debut cap.

Interestingly none of them got the cap & the article went unnoticed.

On 19th December another piece was written by none other than one of the person who was the subject of the previous piece, Karun Nair. While Pandya is currently in Karnataka, recuperating his injured shoulder, Karun smashed the first triple century of his test career. Incidentally he plays for Karnataka in the Ranji trophy.

But those who know him & his character aren’t surprised by what he has achieved. He was man of the match of this year’s Irani trophy final played between Mumbai and Rest of India, where the rest of India chased down a mammoth 480 runs to get the title away from the defending Ranji Champion i.e Mumbai and Karun’s inning in both the innings paved the way for it.

Someone, who was struggling to get into the XI has made such a mark on the test that now it will be nearly impossible for selectors to ignore him. What are the lessons?

1.When opportunity comes, Grab it: His place in the squad was primarily because of injuries to another Karnataka player KL Rahul and others including Dhawan, Sharma. He debuted at Mohali but didn’t do much but when he came into bat at Chennai, India needed him. It helped that his statemate was on the other side which eased his nerves but slowly he settled in. And once he realized that he can actually take advantage of the situation he didn’t leave and went on and on.

2. Don’t be satisfied with smaller achievements: India has seen many legends, including SachinTendulkar, Gavaskar, Kohli etc. but barring Sehwag none of these names have a triple century and here you have a 25 year old crossing his hundred then second hundred and then triple hundred and still willing to play. For others getting a century itself is big but having the courage and mindset to convert that to something huge is for very few. Lot of us can take inspiration from the way you need to approach life.

3. You can comeback: After enduring a horrendous outing with his IPL franchise in 2015 where he had made only 182 runs in 12 innings, life wasn’t going the way the youngster wanted. Add to this the suspension of his team and the future looks bleak. But the tough nut Nair is, went back to Ranji trophy and hammered 500 runs in 7 innings with 2 centuries and 2 half century & the performance like this ensured that selectors didn’t ignore him. So when you think you are down, rethink…maybe something bigger or better is waiting for you.

4. If you feel you need it then go out for help: One of the interesting facts about Karun is that he hasn’t scored any century till he was 19 despite playing in all age group competition? One of the things he said use to vex him was his inability to convert starts and there were lots of self-doubts about his own abilities. This is when he reached out to Rahul Dravid who was India A coach before SA series in 2015. Those interactions when Dravid told him that there is nothing wrong with his technique and only if he has the will power to not throw his wicket he will overcome this start not convert into big score. Lessons learnt from there on and the culmination of that advice and application was there for the world to see when he became the first indian to convert a debut century to a triple century.

5. Flexibility for team: Being asked where he would like to bat in the current set up, karun replied that he is not fussy about the positions. He said its about where the team needs you and what is the requirement you are working on should determine the approach. And this flexibility is something which has made him a rockstar in the Ranji quarter wherein he made three back to back centuries to ensure Karnataka won the Ranji trophy for the first time after 15 years. He has played many such breathtaking innings for his teams bailing them out at critical moments to turn the game. This ability to be adaptable is something which says a lot about the youngster.

Maybe after his boat accident wherein his snake boat capsized in Pompa river and 6 people drowned in front of him has made him calmer and put things into perspective because incidents like these are the life changing ones where people start realizing the worth of life and what you can do with it. It may be a message for the young man that life is short and till the time you are there let others take notice of you by your deeds, whatever profession you are in & boy wasn’t that at display today at Chepauk.

Its early days but signs are good for Karun. Well done.