Legendary India opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar has hit out at the team management following Karun Nair’s omission in the squad for the final Test against England at the Oval.
India handed a Test debut to Hanuma Vihari in the fifth and final Test against England which got underway on Friday. Vihari’s inclusion meant that Nair failed to find a berth in the playing XI after spending the entire summer on the sidelines.
Nair was named in the 18-man India squad for the five-Test series but failed to feature in a single game and will now return from England having only played in a warm-up game against Essex.
The Tamil Nadu batsman was also picked in the India squad for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in June this year but there too, he failed to make the playing XI. Nair’s last Test innings against England had resulted in a quick-fire triple century but a poor run in the series against Australia at home last year saw him sidelined from the squad.
“There is no argument that is going to ever satisfy me. What has Karun Nair done not to get in? I know he has not been your favourite player. You don’t want to pick him. He scores a triple hundred. You leave him out. He fails in a couple of games. You leave him out,” Gavaskar said during his commentary stint with Sony Six following the toss in the final Test.
Nair has failed to get a single Test on the England tour.
“You have brought him back in the team. It could be the selectors who have brought him back. The team management probably doesn’t want him. And that’s why they haven’t given him the opportunity to play in this game,” he added.
Gavaskar believes that Nair has been hard done by and is entitled to an answer from the BCCI as to why he has continuously been ignored.
“How many Indians have got triple hundreds? Virender Sehwag twice and Karun Nair once. You don’t give that man an opportunity. So what are you trying to tell him? Look we don’t think you are a good player?” Gavaskar added.
“All the best to Hanuma Vihari. I really wish him well. Karun Nair has every right to ask the team management what he has done wrong. He deserves an answer. Why am I not picked? If you are going to pick an extra batsman, which they should have done from the first Test itself, and if you haven’t given him the opportunity, he deserves an answer.”
