Time and luck are running against Karun Nair. After securing the final of the ongoing Duleep Trophy, the South Zone captain Tilak Varma explained why he backed Kodimeal Himateja instead of the seasoned Indian domestic cricket campaigner Nair.
'Unlucky', 'unfortunate', these are two words Varma used while explaining the reason for not selecting Karun Nair for the semi-final fixture against North Zone. South Zone entered the final, defeating North Zone by 7 wickets. Tilak Varma himself led the team from the front with his batting, but the emerging cricketer, Kodimeal Himateja, was not effective as a middle-order batter.
Kodimeal Himateja secured a place in the middle-order of the South Zone batting line-up, replacing Karun Nair. In the first innings of the match, Himateja returned with a duck, and in the second innings, he did not need to come out to support his team with his batting.
Dropping someone like Karun Nair, who has 9374 runs in First Class cricket with a batting average of 49.33, was a big deal for South Zone and their captain Tilak Varma.
Tilak Varma explained why Karun Nair was dropped from the Duleep Trophy semi-final playing XI
After the match, Varma expressed that it was an unlucky instance for Nair that he was not in the match. Kodimeal Himateja was placed in the playing eleven to counter the North Zone's left-arm spinners. Himateja, a left-handed batter, was brought into the team to ensure variety in the line-up.
"Karun is just unlucky. He has scored a lot of runs in domestic seasons. I have chosen Himateja in place of Karun as they have good left-arm spinners. So we wanted a leftie in the middle order. He has also scored a decent amount of runs in domestic cricket. I was just backing him. As a youngster, he also has a good career. At the same time, it is very unfortunate for Karun," Tilak Varma said.
Kodimeal Himateja was in great form ahead of the Duleep Trophy
Varma had valid reasons to back the 24-year-old. Himateja, hailing from Adilabad, Telangana, has scored 1008 runs in 15 matches and 23 innings, averaging 45.81. The southpaw has secured five half-centuries and a couple of centuries as well.
Ahead of the Duleep Trophy's knockout fixtures, the batter played some impactful knocks in the TG20 league as well for the Anvita Khammam Aces. He scored an unbeaten century against Falcons in the league, and an unbeaten 80-run knock against the Knights on July 1.
Backed by multiple explosive knocks in the Twenty20 format, Varma trusted him for the crucial match in the Duleep Trophy semi-final. However, that move did not work in the multi-day format.
Tilak Varma, who struggled hard in his recent outings with the India National Cricket Team, slineced hus critics by scoring a century in the first innings, when the middle-order of South Zone looked shaky against the North Zone bowling attack which decorated their team with the bowlers like Arshdeep Singh, Gurnoor Brar, and Anshul Kamboj. Varma's 116 runs off 250 balls proved the main turning point of the match.
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