In the second semi-final between the Maharashtra team led by Ruturaj Gaikwad, Karun Karun Nair scored 88* off 44 balls as his team scored 380. Nair's scores in the tournament were 112*, 44*, 163*
, 111*, 112, 122* and 88*. Thanks to seven unbeaten scores in eight innings, Nair's average reached 752.
Nair, who is a Test triple centurion, has thus sent a strong signal ahead of the Champions Trophy.
Karun Nair is now the first captain in the Vijay Hazare Trophy to cross the 700-run mark. Earlier, Gaekwad, who scored 660 runs in five innings in the 2022-23 season, was the highest scorer as captain.
Nair, now playing for Vidarbha since 2023, was not considered for selection by his state Karnataka after becoming India's second triple centurion in Tests in 2016. However, a chat with former India cricketer Abe Kuruvilla during the DY Patil Tournament in early 2023 helped him find his new home in Vidarbha for the 2023-24 season. Since then, he has been scoring runs across formats.
He is the highest run-scorer in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Nair's T20I game was also on an upward trajectory. He topped the run charts in the Karnataka State Cricket Association's (KSCA) Maharaja's T20 Trophy, scoring 560 runs in 12 matches at an average of 56.00, a strike rate of over 181, with a century and five half-centuries in 12 innings. His best score was 124. He also did well in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, scoring 255 runs in six innings at an average of 42.50, with three half-centuries and a strike rate of over 177.
Things weren't so bright for him when he returned from county duty with Northamptonshire in 2024, scoring 487 runs. In a podcast, former India cricketer Robin Uthappa asked what the batsman had to do to get noticed after he was not considered for the season-opening Duleep Trophy competition. He was dropped after scoring 690 runs at an average of 40.58 in 10 matches during the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy, where his performances helped Vidarbha finish runners-up to Mumbai, who won a record-extending 42nd title.
Now laughing on that podcast, Nair said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo, “Funny I said I think I need to score a century in every single innings to be noticed.”
“I think I may have unknowingly expressed something like that in that chat with Ravi, and it’s coming to fruition. While recording the podcast, I was a bit hurt. After playing in England and scoring almost 700 runs [690 in the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy] to take Vidarbha to the final, I felt I could see the Duleep Trophy.”
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