ICC Champions Trophy 2025: 'Karun Nair is not in his teens…': Bold call made on in-form batter
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India and Vidarbha batter Karun Nair is in sensational form right now in domestic cricket. The 33-year-old has taken the Vijay Hazare Trophy by storm with some highly consistent performances and staked a claim for India's squad in Champions Trophy 2025.
Nair's great form has raised voices of his return to international cricket from various corners of Indian cricket. Former India cricketer WV Raman is one of them and he feels that Karun Nair can't be benched if he gets selected in India's squad for the Champions Trophy.
"Karun Nair is not in his teens to be in the reserves" - WV Raman
WV Raman was replying to a post in which the user hoped for Karun Nair to be a part of India's traveling reserves for the Champions Trophy. However, Raman felt that Nair should be in India's first-choice Playing XI if he gets selected.
The former India women's head coach reckons that if there is no chance of including him in the Playing XI, he should not be picked at all.
"#KarunNair is not in his teens to be in the reserves and watched by the team management. If he is picked, he plays given the form he is in or if there is no slot for him, he should not be picked!" Nair posted on X (formerly Twitter).
#KarunNair is not in his teens to be in the reserves and watched by the team management. If he is picked, he plays given the form he is in or if there is no slot for him, he should not be picked! https://t.co/dD6m1Gp6yM
— WV Raman (@wvraman) January 17, 2025
Karun Nair's insane numbers in Vijay Hazare Trophy
Karun Nair has been in fantastic form with the bat in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25. He has scored 752 runs in the tournament so far in seven innings at a staggering average of 752 and a strike rate of 125.96 with 5 hundreds and 1 fifty.
He has scored 50-plus runs in six out of seven innings. In the only innings he didn't get to fifty, he scored an unbeaten 44. Nair has registered scores of 112*, 44*, 163*, 111*, 112, 122* and 88* this season. He has struck four consecutive hundreds this season which is a List A record.
The 33-year-old has scored the most no. of runs in Lisa A cricket without getting dismissed. In the big semi-final against Maharashtra, Karun Nair smashed 88 off just 44 deliveries and showed his ability to score runs quickly.
The final will be played on January 18 between Karnataka and Vidarbha and it remains to be seen how Nair fares in the big match. The Vidarbha captain will be aiming to lead from the front and produce another match-winning performance.
India's schedule in Champions Trophy 2025
India will begin its Champions Trophy 2025 campaign against Bangladesh on February 20 in Dubai. The Men in Blue will then face arch-rivals Pakistan on February 23. India's last match will be against New Zealand on March 2.
India will play all its matches in Dubai after the Indian government didn't give the BCCI permission to send the team to Pakistan. As a result, the tournament will be played in a hybrid model.
