Redemption Time

IN A WORLD where performing well in the incred­ible pressure of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is fast becoming the yardstick for ultimate cricketing excel­lence, what value does the average Indian cricketer still place on representing India in the oldest format of the game? For the right answer, look no further than the fascinating tale of Karun Nair, which, for all practical purposes, begins nine years ago in the winter of 2016.

Less than a fortnight after his 25th birthday, Karun Nair struck a triple hundred in Test cricket, becoming only the second Indian, after Virender Sehwag, to do so in the long history of the game. Because it was scored in only his third Test match for India (all three of them played against visiting England), the future of this Karnataka batsman—already elevated to captain of his state side —was considered brighter than any other newcomer on the horizon of Indian cricket.

That was how the year 2016 ended for Nair, with the world as his proverbial oyster. Then came 2017, when he played three more Test matches in the early part of the year, all of them against Australia at home, showed diminishing returns in those four batting innings (26, 0, 23, 5) and never played Test cricket for India again. Nair’s meteoric rise, rapidly followed by his burning-asteroid-of-a-fall, highlighted just how fickle and cut-throat the highest level of international sport can be. More than anything else, it made him Indian cricket’s great cautionary tale.

To sum up a long and agonising tale of a downfall, first his leadership role in Kar­nataka was taken away from him, followed by a drought in IPL, this spiral concluding with his overall exit from his state team. It made Nair do what few modern cricketers do—vent his frustration on social media. “Dear cricket,” he wrote in a heartfelt tweet back in 2022, “give me one more chance.” It won him hearts and soon, he won himself a contract with Vidarbha as a professional in 2023. Still, the journey back to international cricket, leave alone Test cricket, seemed a mighty distance away, which it was. Until, through sheer hard work and a little bit of luck, it wasn’t.

Said hard work was put on display in the form of over 800 runs in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season, which Vidarbha won, over a fourth of those runs (86 in the first innings and 135 in the second) scored in the final against Kerala, who, incidentally, didn’t pick Nair even after he considered playing for them after leaving Kar­nataka. Even those glories, performances and runs may not have been enough had India’s Test side not lost three all-time greats in one go to retirements, two of them batsmen in Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. That was all the luck that was needed and sud­denly, all those recent runs in first-class cricket, List A cricket and County cricket were reason enough to not ignore Nair anymore.

Then, last week, while he was relishing his return to IPL with Delhi Capitals, the 33-year-old’s prayers to a sport were answered in the form of a recall into India’s Test squad that will take part in a five-Test series in England. “With Virat not there, clearly we’re lacking a bit of experience, we felt his [Nair’s] experience could help,” was the reason given by Ajit Agarkar, the head of India’s selection committee, which pretty much chalks in Nair’s name into the playing XI for the first Test in Leeds next month, which will be his first in over eight years, or exactly 100 months.

Nair’s is not the only comeback story in India’s Test squad to England. While the 18-man unit might have a young look to it thanks to the retirements of Kohli, Rohit and Ravichandran Ashwin and the inclusion of the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan and Nitish Kumar Reddy (the oldest of whom is 23), the squad also has an equal measure of rela­tively old boys in search of redemption. Nair, of course, is one of them, but there is also Abhimanyu Easwaran, who will turn 30 in September this year, and is still eagerly waiting for his first chance to represent India in international cricket. This isn’t to say that the Bengal opener hasn’t come close to winning his cap in the past.

On three separate Test tours since 2018, home and away, Easwaran has been a part of the India squad but has always found someone else to be the first preference, be it in the starting eleven or even as a replacement. This, according to Easwaran’s father in a recent interview, is because Abhimanyu has never played in IPL, which has ensured that the wider public has never watched him play and hence is easier to ignore. But con­sistent performances for Bengal and India A—the feeder team to the Test side that he has even led—has ensured that the 29-year-old is back in the reckoning and yet again a selection call away from making his lifelong dream come true.

Unlike Easwaran, Shardul Thakur has, in the past, regularly featured for India across all formats. But not since 2023. After the last 50-over World Cup at home, Thakur received just one more cap, in a Test match against South Africa in Centurion and after that, seemingly disap­peared from the top-flight scene, even going unpicked at the 2025 IPL auction. But an injury to Mohsin Khan of Lucknow Super Giants ensured the all-rounder was brought in as a replacement and immediately had an impact for LSG; at one stage, the Mumbai man even held the Purple Cap this season. The season of comebacks across formats continued for the 33-year-old as he was picked in the Test squad as the second pace-bowling all-rounder.

But the biggest comeback, in terms of stature as well as in terms of impact for Indian cricket, is that of Jasprit Bumrah’s. Already he is the greatest all-format bowler India has ever produced and even led the side in Rohit’s absence in Australia, where, he incredibly became the first bowler in the history of Test cricket to claim 200 wickets at an average of under 20. But just as life was looking swell, Bumrah was felled by injury and missed playing in (and winning) the Champions Trophy. Being injury-prone ensured that Bumrah missed out on leading India’s Test side full-time too, losing out to Shubman Gill. But just the fact that the 31-year-old is back—for however long—gives India reason to believe far more than they would in his absence.

comeback storiesIndian cricketJasprit BumrahKarun NairTest Squad