Ex-chief selector Sandeep Patil stunned by exclusion of England 'passenger' Karun Nair from Test squad for series against West Indies
Karun Nair
Erstwhile chairman of selectors and former batting stalwart, Sandeep Patil is stunned by the continuing exclusion of Karun Nair in India's Test squad. Nair was overlooked by the team management on the recent tour of England and did not even make it when Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan were dropped following a drop in form. Hanuma Vihari was chosen for the final Test at the Oval where the pundits felt Nair could have been given a go especially with the series already surrendered.
"I hurt for Nair. He has not done anything wrong to be dropped... I really feel sad for him," Patil told mid-day yesterday. "Look, I know what he is capable of. I have seen him from close quarters ever since I was at the National Cricket Academy [as director). When we had matches against Karnataka, Nair would always be part of the XI and score runs."
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Sandeep Patil
Nair told Cricbuzz website recently that there was no communication between him and the team management while he was kept out of the side in England. He led the Board President's XI in their two-day game against the touring West Indies team in Baroda. The fact that Nair is a Test triple centurion — against England at Chennai in 2016 — is not lost on Patil.
"Is it his fault for scoring a triple century? I don't like criticising selectors, but I can't understand this selection policy. On one hand, you back a guy like Hardik Pandya and on the other, you don't persist with a player of abundant ability. Nair is a player who should be backed," remarked Patil, who felt opener Murali Vijay too got a bad deal in England.
"Two games and Vijay was out! I am happy for Prithvi Shaw [who got picked in the squad after the third Test in England], but then you don't play him," he said. Patil knows how it feels to sit out of a Test series. He was part of the Kapil Dev's Indian team in England during the 1986 tour, but did not make the playing XI in any of the three Tests.
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