Karun Nair has been roped in by the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) as the replacement of the injured KL Rahul for the remainder of the season. The LSG captain and opener has been ruled out for the rest of the IPL 2023 owing to a thigh injury that he sustained while fielding against RCB.
Karun Nair has been picked for his base price of INR 50 lakh after going unsold in the auction.
Nair has been part of 5 IPL franchises – Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals), Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings), Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and RCB – having amassed 1496 runs in 76 IPL matches after making his debut in 2013.
Nair had, however, played little cricket in recent times. He’s featured in only 8 IPL matches over the past 4 seasons. In the domestic season, poor form also meant he was dropped from the Karnataka squad. He was in consideration by RCB to be picked up as the middle-order batter replacement of the injured David Willey, but RCB went with Kedar Jadhav. This highlights that even RCB didn’t have faith in the form of Nair, making Lucknow Super Giant’s decision even more questionable.
Here are 3 players who LSG could have picked instead of Karun Nair:
Gurkeerat Singh Mann
Gurkeerat Singh Mann is a prolific domestic all-rounder and who has played for Punjab Kings and RCB in the IPL. The 32-year-old is coming off an impressive domestic season: in his last Vijay Hazare trophy, all his three knocks were of 50-plus scores – 67, 81 and 105. In the SMAT 2021, he had the best average of 78 of the Punjab team.
Baba Indrajith
Baba Aparajith is one of the most talented batsmen from Tamil Nadu of recent times. The 28-year-old has an experience of 250 domestic matches across the three formats.
Baba Aparajith has form to show: in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, 2022/23, the right-hander was the best Tamil Nadu batsman, averaging 41 while no other batter from his side averaged over 30, and he hit two fifties in 5 innings.
Shivam Chaudhary
Among the non-IPL players, Shivam Chaudhary was the top-scorer in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, 2022/23 and overall the Railways batsman was sixth after some of the big names. A right-handed batsman and a part-time off-spinner, born in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, Shivam Chaudhary cracked 306 runs in 7 knocks in the SMAT season, averaging a brilliant 51 with 3 half-centuries in 7 innings. His 3 fifties were the joint second-highest by any batter in the SMAT 2022/23 season. Perhaps Lucknow Super Giants would have been better picking an in-form batsman instead of a struggling Karun Nair based solely on his experience.
