Karun Nair announced his arrival at the world stage with an unforgettable triple ton (303 not out) on Monday as India broke a deluge of records en route their highest ever Test total of 759 for 7 against England on the fourth day of the fifth and final match in Chennai.
The 25-year-old from Karnataka became the second Indian batsman after the legendary Virender Sehwag to hit a triple hundred in Test match cricket.
During his marathon 381-ball innings, Karun hit 32 boundaries and four huge sixes as India took a huge lead of 282 runs before England finished the day at 12 for no loss.
Karun scored 232 runs in a single day and enthralled the Chepauk crowd with shots all around the ground. He was quick to use his feet against England spinners with their premier tweaker Moeen Ali returning dismal figures of 1/190 in 41 overs while Liam Dawson (2/129) and Adil Rashid (1/153) also proved to be expensive.
Ironically, Karun wasn’t even in line for a Test debut during the series. He was picked after Rohit Sharma suffered a hamstring injury. Then a freak injury to Rahul opened the door for Karun in Mohali where he was unfortunately run-out for just 4.
Once Rahul was fit in Mumbai, Karun was expected to sit out, but this time Ajinkya Rahane was ruled out due to a finger fracture. Karun scored 13 runs but with Rahane out of action, he got another opportunity.
Nair got some good support during the day with Ravichandran Ashwin (67) adding 181 runs for the sixth wicket. Ashwin became the first Indian player to score more than 300 runs and take in excess of 25 wickets in a series.
The 138-run seventh wicket stand with Ravindra Jadeja (51) also enabled Karun to carry on with his attacking mode.
Resuming at the overnight score of 391-4, Nair and Murali Vijay (29) found the going a bit tough against the duo of Dawson and Stuart Broad.
Vijay's fall in the 124th over brought Ashwin to the crease and after a few overs, Nair once again repeated his treatment to Stokes, picking up successive boundaries off the bowler to keep the scoreboard ticking.
Vijay (29), who had come down the order at number 6, was the only batsman dismissed in the pre-lunch session as Liam Dawson picked up his maiden wicket in the 124th over after trapping him in front of wicket.
For the English bowlers, it continued to be a forgettable series. Their premier spinners conceded in excess of 150 plus runs and the pacers did not have anything to look forward to on a docile track.
Bowling on this placid track is a big challenge and all eyes will be on local boy Ashwin as he requires only two more wickets to complete the fastest 250 wickets in the history of Test cricket.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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