Rahul out on 199, India 4-391 vs England

Karun Nair made an epic unbeaten triple century to power India to their highest ever innings total against a demoralised England. KL Rahul had agonisingly missed a double century on Sunday and barely 24 hours later, on the fourth day of the Test against England in Chepauk, Karun Nair, another Karnataka mainstay, was approaching that rare milestone.

It was also the highest score for an Indian batsman who scored his maiden test hundred.

Then, on Monday, Joe Root dropped Nair when he was on 217. “So I think within the space of five overs I got to 280-285, that’s when I started thinking and Jaddu kept egging me on to not throw it away and get to 300 easily”, said Karun. In the last Test, just as she walked into the room where the match was on, Nair got out, she recollected.

Brendon McCullum broke New Zealand’s duck against India at the Basin Reserve in 2014, in his 84th test, and the nation rose to the skipper. “I have played the sweep nearly all my life as of now”. The India all-rounder reviewed and was reprieved as HawkEye showed the ball missing the stumps. “It’s my go-to shot and it just came off well today”, he said.

India have been unable to call upon the service of injured duo Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma against England, while Rahane only played the first three Tests.

Nair’s association with the game goes way back to 2001 when father Kaladharan Nair enrolled a 10-year-old Karun to the Koramangala Cricket Academy, run by Shivananda.

In the next over, Nair blasted Dawson for his first six over long-on, while Vijay picked up a boundary off Ben Stokes behind point in the 121st over. India’s 631 at Mumbai followed by 759 at Chennai is preceded by three other instances by Australia (against England in 1946), West Indies (Against India in 1948) and India (against Sri Lanka in 2009).

– Nair is the fourth batsman to have scored a triple-century from No.5. Before him, Len Hutton achieved the landmark in his ninth innings.

Karun’s blistering knock has reaffirmed Chepauk’s hallowed place in Test cricket’s history as it’s the only venue in the country to witness a triple hundred, not just once, twice. Although able to play long innings, as exemplified by his triple hundreds in this match and for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy final past year, Nair has all the strokes culled from T20 as well, such as reverse-sweeps and uppercuts over the wicket-keeper.

His batting isn’t flashy by any stretch of the imagination, but his scoring rate was almost 80, which made it one of the quickest triple tons ever scored. Nair also scored his triple at the latter ground, albeit after it had been majorly revamped.

On the other hand, take the example of an Axar Patel. He has an abundance of time on his side, and with the right amount of hard work and the captain’s backing, the sky’s the limit.