Karun Nair joins Northamptonshire for remainder of County Championship season

Northampton: India batter Karun Nair has joined Northamptonshire until the end of the season, the club said on Friday. Nair, 31, will play the remaining three County Championship fixtures for Northamptonshire in place of Sam Whiteman, who has returned to Australia.

Before Nair, young opener Prithvi Shaw had signed up with the club for the One-day Cup and made headlines for smacking a record-breaking 244 off 153 balls against Somerset before his stint ended early due to a knee injury.

Nair has landed in the country and will link up with the squad ahead of the upcoming County Championship fixture against Warwickshire starting on Sunday.

“I’m really looking forward to joining Northamptonshire and getting to play in the County Championship.”

“You hear a lot about County cricket, and I know Prithvi (Shaw) really enjoyed his time with the team so it’s exciting to have the opportunity to be involved too,” said Nair in a statement made by the club.

Nair made his Test debut for India in 2016 against England in Mohali and became just the second Indian after Virender Sehwag to slam a triple century when he smashed an unbeaten 303 in the last game of the series in Chennai.

He was also a member of India’s 2017 Border-Gavaskar Trophy squad and featured in his last Test match against Australia in Dharamsala in March, making 374 runs in six Test appearances. Nair, who was playing club cricket in the UK of late, also has two ODI caps and amassed 46 runs from it.

Northamptonshire head Coach John Sadler said he was delighted to sign a player of Nair’s calibre.

“It’s great that we’ve been able to secure Karun to come over for the remainder of the season, he’s really keen to get going.”

“He’s a high-class batter who’s scored something like 11,000 runs in his career and his first-class numbers are particularly special. He brings buckets of experience too which is so valuable to have around the dressing room, I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do for us in these three games.”

Nair had recently announced he would be leaving Karnataka and playing for Vidarbha in the Indian domestic cricket season 2023-24.

“Hopefully, I can make an impact on the team while I’m there, that’s the main thing for me. It’s about doing as much as I can to help the team get some wins in these last three games,” he concluded.