Karun Kaladharan Nair (born 6 December 1991) is an Indian international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who plays for

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

in domestic cricket and

Rajasthan Royals Rajasthan Royals (often abbreviated as RR) are a franchise cricket team based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 as one of the initial eight IPL franchises, the team is based at the Sawai Ma ...

in Indian Premier League. He is a right-handed top order

batter Batter or batters may refer to: Common meanings * Batter (cooking), thin dough that can be easily poured into a pan * Batter (baseball), person whose turn it is to face the pitcher * Batter (cricket), a player who is currently batting * Batter ...

and occasional

off break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

bowler. He is only the second Indian batter to score a triple century in Test cricket. He made his India debut in the 2016 away ODI against Zimbabwe. He made his

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

debut against England in 2016.

Early life

Karun was born on 6 December 1991 in

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Ki ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

. His parents Kaladharan Nair and Prema Nair hails from

Chengannur Chengannur (also spelled Chengannoor or Chenganur) is a Municipality in the Alappuzha district of Kerala State, India. It is located in the extreme eastern part of the Alappuzha district, on the banks of Pamba River. Chengannur is north of ...

in Alappuzha district of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. Kaladharan, who is a mechanical engineer, was posted in Jodhpur at the time of his son's birth and later moved with his family to Koramangala,

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

where he also worked on the sprinkler system at the

M. Chinnaswamy Stadium The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium (formerly known as the Karnataka State Cricket Association Stadium) is a cricket stadium located in Bangalore, Karnataka. Flanked by the picturesque Cubbon Park, Queen's Road, Cubbon and uptown MG Road, this five-dec ...

. Nair's mother, Prema is a teacher at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Bangalore. Karun has an elder sister, Shruthi Nair. Born as a premature baby, Karun's parents were advised by the doctors to introduce their son to sports as part of the treatment for his weak lungs. Nair joined Koramangala Cricket Academy on 28 March 2001, a year after his family moved to Bengaluru and was coached under Shivanand. He studied at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, were his mother taught until fourth grade and switched to the

Frank Anthony Public School Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Cur ...

for better cricketing opportunities. He studied BCom (Hons) at

Jain University Jain University, officially JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), is a private deemed-to-be-university in Bangalore, India. Originating from Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, it was conferred the deemed-to-be-university status in 2009. In August ...

in Bangalore. He is fluent in several languages :

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

. His mother-tongue is Malayalam.

Domestic career

Nair made his first-class debut in the 2013–14 season in which

won the Ranji Trophy. He scored three consecutive centuries in their final league game and the first-two knockout matches. He went through a lean patch in the 2014–15 season with a string of low scores but bounced back smashing 328 runs in the final helping Karnataka to win the title again. He also became the second player from Karnataka to score a triple century and the first batter to score a triple century in a Ranji final since 1946–47. It was also the highest total by a batter in the final of Ranji Trophy. He scored 500 runs in the

2015–16 Ranji Trophy The 2015–16 Ranji Trophy was the 82nd season of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first-class cricket tournament in India. It was contested by 27 teams divided into three groups of nine teams each. The top three teams from Groups A and B advanced ...

including two centuries and two half-centuries. He continued his good run in the next season hitting one century and three half-centuries from his six appearances in the season. In October 2018, he was named in

India A The India A cricket team is a national cricket team representing India. It is the second-tier of Indian international cricket, below the full India national cricket team. The team is currently captained by Priyank Panchal in first-class cricket a ...

's squad for the

2018–19 Deodhar Trophy The 2018–19 Deodhar Trophy was the 46th edition of the Deodhar Trophy, a List A cricket competition in India. It was contested between three teams selected by the Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in ...

. The following month, he was named as one of eight players to watch ahead of the

2018–19 Ranji Trophy The 2018–19 Ranji Trophy was the 85th season of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first-class cricket tournament that took place in India between November 2018 and February 2019. Vidarbha were the defending champions. The final took place between ...

. In August 2019, he was named in the India Red team's squad for the

2019–20 Duleep Trophy The 2019–20 Duleep Trophy was the 58th season of the Duleep Trophy, a first-class cricket tournament in India. It took place in August and September 2019, starting the 2019–20 domestic cricket season in India. India Blue were the defending c ...

International career

Nair was named in the Indian ODI and T20I squads for their series against Zimbabwe in May 2016 and made his

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) debut in the series at Harare Sports Club on 11 June 2016. On 26 November 2016, he made his

debut against England at

Mohali Mohali, officially known as Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, is a planned city in the Mohali district in Punjab (India), Punjab, India, which is an administrative and a commercial hub lying south-west of Chandigarh. It is the headquarters of the Moh ...

. He scored his maiden Test

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

in the final match of the series at the

M. A. Chidambaram Stadium M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, commonly known as the Chepauk Stadium, is a cricket stadium in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1916, it is the second oldest cricket stadium in the country after Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Formerly known as Ma ...

, going on to finish 303

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

. He was only three innings old in international cricket then, thus becoming the quickest batsman to hit a maiden triple-hundred in Test cricket history in term of number of matches played. He was also India's second ever triple-centurion after

Virender Sehwag Virender Sehwag (born 20 October 1978) is a former Indian cricketer who represented India from 1999 to 2013. Widely regarded as one of the most destructive opener, he played for Delhi Capitals in IPL and Delhi and Haryana in Indian domestic c ...

, and only the third man in the game's history to convert a maiden Test ton into a triple. India won the match by an innings and 75 runs, and Nair was named as the player of the match.

Indian Premier League

Karun was a part of

Royal Challengers Bangalore Royal Challengers Bangalore (often abbreviated as RCB) are a franchise cricket team based in Bangalore, Karnataka, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). It was founded in 2008 by United Spirits and named after the company's liquor b ...

in the

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

seasons of Indian Premier League. He got his breakthrough season with

in the

2014 IPL The 2014 season of the Indian Premier League, abbreviated as IPL 7 or Pepsi IPL 2014, was the seventh season of the IPL, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. The tournam ...

scoring 330 runs in the season at a strike rate of 142.24. In 2016,

Delhi Daredevils Delhi Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils) are a franchise cricket team based out of Delhi in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is jointly owned by the GMR Group and the JSW Group. The team's home ground is Arun Jaitley Stadium, ...

signed Karun after Rajasthan was banned from the competition for two years after being found guilty in illegal betting and match-fixing probe. He captained Delhi in 3 matches after an injury to Zaheer Khan in the 2017 season. He was bought by Kings XI Punjab in the

2018 IPL auction This is a list of all personnel changes for the 2018 Indian Premier League. This was the third season to have all players, apart from a selection of retained players, return to the auction pool (first in 2011, second in 2014) Player retention ...

. In February 2021, Nair was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL auction ahead of the

2021 Indian Premier League The 2021 Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 14, or for sponsorship reasons, Vivo IPL 2021, was the fourteenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cric ...

. In February 2022, he returned to Rajasthan Royals in the

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

for the

2022 Indian Premier League The 2022 Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 15 or for sponsorship reasons, Tata IPL 2022, was the fifteenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricke ...

tournament.

Personal life

In July 2016, Karun survived a boat accident in river

Pampa The Pampas (from the qu, pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazil ...

during a thanksgiving temple visit after making his ODI debut. He announced his engagement with longtime girlfriend Sanaya Tankariwala, a media professional on 29 June 2019 through his social media handles. The couple got married in a private ceremony at

Udaipur Udaipur () (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura''), historically named as Udayapura, is a city and municipal corporation in Udaipur district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarter of Udaipur district. It is the historic capit ...

on 19 January 2020. Their son, Kayaan Nair was born in January 2022.

References

External links

*
Karun Nair
at Wisden {{DEFAULTSORT:Nair, Karun 1991 births Delhi Capitals cricketers India One Day International cricketers India Test cricketers Indian cricketers Living people People from Kerala Rajasthan Royals cricketers Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers India Green cricketers Punjab Kings cricketers Kolkata Knight Riders cricketers Indian A cricketers