Duleep Trophy | Hopeful of turning good preparation into good performances, states Karun Nair

It is not often that a player who averages more than 62 in Test Cricket slips under the radar and gets ignored by the selectors time and again. But such has been the career of Karun Nair, who, despite only being the second-ever triple centurion in Indian cricket history, now finds himself far away from a possible Test recall. 

But then again, all you can do as a cricketer is making your on-field performances count, and today in the Duleep Trophy, the Karnataka man did just that, as he ended the day unbeaten on 92, just 8 runs shy off his 14th first-class century. Ahead of the upcoming domestic season, the 27-year-old is confident that his preparation will pay dividends and that he'll be able to translate them into good performances. 

"I’ve had a good couple of months to prepare in the off-season. I got a hundred and a ninety in Dr Capt. K. Thimmappiah Memorial tournament, and I got time to work on my game," Nair was quoted as saying by Sportstar.

"I had to work that much harder in the nets. Hopefully, I can turn this good preparation into good performances this year,” he added.

The Karnataka man admitted that consistency will hold key if he's to make a comeback to the National team and revealed that he visualizes every game as a final in order to challenge himself to the maximum extent possible.

"I need to work on being consistent. Getting runs game after game is what takes a player to the highest level. I need to create that pressure on myself – perhaps by considering every game as a final,” the 27-year-old said.

Nair was last part of the Indian setup in the team's tour to England in 2018, but since has been leapfrogged by Hanuma Vihari and hasn't been in the scheme of things ever since.