Karun Nair down with a lower abdominal pain; Underwent scans last night

Just days after becoming only the second Indian to score a Test 300, it has been revealed that Karnataka batsman Karun Nair was suffering from a lower abdominal pain when he walked out to bat against Tamil Nadu on day 1 of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy quarter-finals and underwent a scan at Vizag last night.

Though the extent of the injury was unclear, it was not a good move by the Karnataka team management to make Karun play the South Indian Derby in spite of the pain as he just a played a long innings few days back and is in contention for a place in the National team for the ODIs and T20Is against England starting on 15 January 2017. With the likes of Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Ajinkya Rahane (mostly) and Mohammad Shami out of the ODIs, it will be a big blow for MS Dhoni’s men if the Karnataka batsman fails to get fit in time for the series.

In spite of coming out to bat with pain, Karun couldn’t save his side from shambles as they already lost 4 wickets for 44 runs and he managed to score just 14 before getting out to Aswin Crist off the very first ball after lunch with the scorecard reading 72-7. Eventually, Vinay Kumar’s men were dismissed for just 88 in the first innings with Aswin Crist capturing his career-best haul of 6/31.

Karun’s teammates in the Indian dressing room for the fifth Test against England at Chennai, KL Rahul and Manish Pandey too looked off-colour as they perished for 4 and 28 respectively. In return, Tamil Nadu ended day 1 with a lead of 23 for the loss of four wickets and lost the wicket of Dinesh Karthick, who is playing his 100^th Ranji match early on day 2. With a green-top in place at the ADA-VDCA Stadium in Vizag, it won’t be a surprise if the game gets over before the end of the third day.

Earlier this week, Karun Nair smashed several records by becoming the second Indian after Virender Sehwag to score a triple hundred in Tests when he scored an unbeaten 303 against the Poms in Chennai. Karun had a slice of luck when he was on 34 as Alastair Cook dropped him in the slip cordon when he was batting on 34. He was also saved by Johny Bairstow when he was on 246 as the wicket-keeper failed to collect the ball when Karun was way out of his crease.