Pravin Amre reckons former Indian player is to thank for Karun Nair's special knock
25-year-old Karun Nair captivated the nation with a knock of epic proportions against England on Monday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. His unbeaten 303 was just the third time a batsman from India had breached the 300-run barrier and he became just the second Indian after Virender Sehwag to do so.
He was immediately catapulted into the spotlight and there has been plenty of praise pouring in for the right-handed batsman from Jodhpur.
Former Indian cricket team player and current Delhi Daredevils assistant coach Pravin Amre believes that India’s U-19 and A team coach Rahul Dravid played a monumental role in Nair’s success.
Describing his innings to Wisden India, the 48-year-old said, "Karun has shown a lot of character today; it is not easy to score a triple-hundred, that too in the Chennai heat. I think every Indian player in that dressing room would be proud of the way he went about his innings. The way he paced his innings after the double-hundred was remarkable, but I wasn’t surprised.
He’s done it before, that too in a Ranji final, and the way he started this morning, I felt he would repeat that feat. He feeds off pressure, that’s the best part about him. He is very confident about his shots and backed his instincts today, he has really worked hard on getting all his sweep shots right. ”
Karun has been a consistent performer for his Ranji side Karnataka over the years. He has amassed nearly 3000 runs at an average of over 50 with 8 centuries.
He made waves with his performances in the Indian Premier League, first, with the Rajasthan Royals and second, with the Delhi Daredevils. A common factor for both these teams was the mentor – Rahul Dravid.
“One of the biggest influence on Karun’s batting has been his association with Rahul Dravid (Delhi Daredevils and India A head coach) during the IPL. During the nets, he used to try and understand every aspect of his batting with Dravid. We all know about Dravid’s contribution to Indian and Karnataka cricket, so with a person like him mentoring Karun, it made a lot of difference.”
During his knock of 303, Karun went past a number of Indian legends, including Dravid.
His childhood coach, B Shivanand, meanwhile reserved the highest praise for him, saying, “ I’ve been working with him since the last 15 years, and he is one of the most technically sound batsmen I’ve known.”
One thing is for sure, Karun has cemented his place in Indian cricket folklore forever.