Nair pushes for Test case with 186* on opening day of England tour

While the opinion might be divided whether Karun Nair should be in the India XI for the first Test against England starting June 20 in Leeds, the batter strengthened his case with a stroke-filled century on the opening day of the unofficial Test between India A and England Lions in Canterbury. Cuts, upper cuts, steers, punched drives, pulls, inside-out drives and several reverse sweeps - Nair exhibited all those strokes while easing his way to his 24th first-class century, which he made big to end the day unbeaten on 186.

Nair walked in early in the morning after India A opener and captain Abhimanyu Easwaran was trapped plumb for 8 in the sixth over by left-arm fast bowler Josh Hull. As a cloudy and slightly nippy first hour cleared way for a picture-perfect sunny afternoon, Nair warmed up to the conditions and the bowling. It was not Nair who was in focus until Yashasvi Jaiswal played an erroneous stroke about half hour before lunch. Jaiswal, who has a penchant to make big centuries, showed all signs of having a good first day on this long England tour, before he decided to attempt a wild slog against a length delivery from Eddie Jack.

Nair, who was on 26 at lunch, along with Sarfaraz Khan, snatched back any psychological edge the Lions, who had elected to field, might have momentarily gained from Jaiswal's wicket. Both batters did not let go any scoring opportunities which came frequently as the inexperience Lions bowling - a total of six Test caps among them - showed throughout. Nair has a compact base in his stance and utilised a lot of wristwork in his batting. That allows him to score easily on both sides of the pitch, but most of his runs on Friday came in front of square on the off side.

Nair especially took advantage of the vast empty pocket between point and mid-off as the Lions seamers tried to lure him to go for his strokes expecting the ball to seam away and take an edge. Sadly for Lions, Nair kept lunging forward to punch cover drives and square drives. And when the ball was short at an innocuous length, Nair swiftly got on the back foot to steer, cut and upper cut to pick easy boundaries.

There was the odd lapse in concentration, too. On 62, Nair lashed hard to cut at an angled delivery from Hull, but was lucky to get away without nicking. On 89, he did nick a seaming delivery from Ajeet Singh Dale, but Emilio Gay dropped a sitter at second slip in the over before tea. Nair returned from the break rejuvenated and celebrated the landmark soon after, calmly raising his bat towards the dressing room and the healthy crowd that filled the St Lawrence Ground. With the volume of runs he has scored for Vidarbha, the team he moved to as a professional a couple of years ago, Nair had convinced the selectors and Indian think tank to include him in the 18-member Test squad for the five-Test series.

Nair, 33, has played six Tests, the last of which came in 2017. In his third Test, against England in Chennai in 2016, he became only the second triple-centurion for India. It was his maiden century. With the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the selectors believed Nair can lend the experience if he is picked in the XI during the England series, which is the first for India in the new World Test Championship cycle (2025-27).

While India are likely to blood Tamil Nadu left-hand opener B Sai Sudharsan in the top order, Nair is understood to be looked at for the No. 6 position in case India play an extra batter alongside Ravindra Jadeja at No. 7. Nair showed he can not just play a big innings but also be compatible with his batting partners: a 181-run third-wicket partnership with Sarfaraz was followed by an unbeaten 177-run alliance with Dhruv Jurel.

On first day of India's long summer in England, Nair did himself no harm by grabbing the limelight quietly.