Karun Nair has joined Northamptonshire for their remaining three County Championship games this season. The India batter replaces Sam Whiteman, who has returned to Australia.
“I’m really looking forward to joining Northamptonshire and getting to play in the County Championship.” Nair said in a statement. “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.
“Hopefully I can make an impact for 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.”
Nair had arrived in the UK on Friday and will link up with the Northamptonshire side ahead of their game against Warwickshire, which begins on Sunday.
In December 2016, Nair became only the second Indian, after Virender Sehwag, to score a triple-hundred for India in Test cricket. But he has only played three Tests since and isn’t on India’s radar across formats currently.
Nair, though, brings with him vast domestic experience. He has played 85 first-class games and was a key part of Karnataka’s double-treble winning teams. Nair has now decided to move to Vidarbha for the upcoming domestic season.
Head coach John Sadler welcomed Nair into the Northamptonshire set-up.
“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.” Sadler said. “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.”
Northamptons are bottom of Division One of the County Championship, 26 points from safety, and are in a three-way battle with Middlesex and Kent to avoid relegation.
