This was the best knock I have played in my life: Karun Nair

Indian middle-order batsman Karun Nair etched his name in the history books becoming only the second Indian to score a triple hundred in Test cricket. He started the day unbeaten on 77, he grew from strength to strength during the course of the day and was a different batsman once he was batting in triple figures. The hit the English bowlers to his will and played an array of shots from the elegant beauties to the slogs.

He was unbeaten on 195 when India went into Tea; he got to his double ton soon and became only the third Indian to convert a maiden century into a double. Nair changed gears once again and was absolutely toiling with the bowlers, the spinners especially Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. He played a lot of risky shots in his bid to score quick runs and as if it was his day, they all came off.

In no time he was into the 250s and kept hitting the boundaries and most of them with the sweep shot against the spinners. It was his best chance of scoring a triple century now and one could sense he had a real chance today. Skipper Virat Kohli decided to let the youngster have a go at it. Karun didn’t hold up when he got closer to the milestone and scored quick runs. Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja also scored their respective half centuries and got out.

Karun was on 299 Cook brought the field in to deny him a single and packed the off-side. Adil Rashid was the bowler but Karun wasn’t going to fall for it, he crashed it through the in-fied and off she went into the boundary ropes. He was elated and so was the entire Indian dressing room. This was the first time someone apart from Virender Sehwag scored a triple hundred for India.

After the end of the day’s play Ravi Shastri had a brief chat with the man of the moment Karun Nair, he said it was the best knock of his life and thanked his batting partners for their support. “Best knock I’ve played in my life. Many situations in the middle when I had to play differently, with Rahul, Ashwin and Jaddu. I have to thank them for supporting me, egging me on. The first hundred is always important and I think when I got the first hundred, I didn’t feel any pressure. I was just playing my shots after that,”

He played all the variety of the sweep shot, the conventional sweep, the paddle sweep, the reverse sweep and the slog sweep. “Sweep comes naturally to me, I’ve worked on it a lot, it’s my go-to shot and it just came off today.”

His parents were in the stands to watch their son play for India. He definitely made them proud scoring not only his maiden century but a triple ton. “My dad watches most of my games. No extra pressure on me. I’d like to thank them for coming over. I think they should be proud of me.”

A couple of months ago Karun had survived a boat accident. His boat capsized in Kerala and he didn’t know how to swim, he was rescued. “I didn’t know how to swim. People there rescued me and I was lucky to live again.”

Talking about the message from the dressing room he said, “The message was to attack in the third session. We had a set overs to declare on, but when I got closer to 300, they pushed it back. I’m thankful to the team management.”

He scored a triple while his Karnataka teammate KL Rahul missed out on his double hundred by just one run. Ravi asked him if he teased Rahul for getting out on 199. Karun said, “Rahul is a good player. He’ll get his 200 soon. The pitch is getting worse day by day. Hard for a new batsman. It’s turning a bit right now, hope it turns more tomorrow.”