'Justice for Karun Nair' - 752-run Vijay Hazare hero's shocking snub from Team India leaves fans stunned

The apex cricket governing body BCCI, announced the Team India squad for the upcoming ICC mega event, Champions Trophy 2025. Notably, the Chief Selector and the former India cricketer, Ajit Agarkar, while announcing the names of players, left a player despite his sublime run in the domestic circuit. As a result, things took a rather surprising turn. That player was none other than the Vidarbha Captain and batter, Karun Nair

Notably, Nair was left out for both the CT 2025 and the ODI series, which is to be played at home against England. For the unversed, the Jodhpur-born batter showed magnanimous form as he went on to score with an outrageous average of 752.00. Not just that, he achieved this freak feat by remaining unbeaten in six innings in the ongoing 2025 edition of the coveted Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT).

Now after the announcement, Agarkar was asked about why Nair was not considered for an India comeback. He came up with his rationale behind leaving out the man in ominous form. Notably, Nair last played for Team back in the year 2017. Probably this seemed an issue for the Chief Selector's resistance to give the veteran another shot at making a comeback into the national side.

"Someone averages 700+, those are special performances. At the moment, finding spot in this team is difficult," said Agarkar during the press conference.

However, this triggered a controversy, as former cricketers and fans alike seemed not happy with the decision of the BCCI. In the same vein, the former cricketer Shreevats Goswami came hard on the selection by saying that the Indian board was going against their efforts of pushing key players to play domestic cricket without failing. Besides, the fans were also left stunned by this decision given that some senior players of late, have been out of form.

Siraj left out, Arshdeep preferred over him for Champions Trophy

Meanwhile, speaking of Team India's composition, pacer Mohammed Shami made his comeback into the national team. However, apart from key players, another pacer Mohammed Siraj was snubbed from the squad. Instead of him, Arshdeep was preferred to do the job for the team. While Bumrah, still remains uncertain owing to fitness issues, players Sanju Samson and Karun Nair were not considered in the 15-man squad.

As far as the Champions Trophy is concerned, the marquee ICC event will be held in Pakistan and the UAE, after a hiatus of eight years. After beginning in February, the tournament will conclude on March 9, 2025. Notably, Team India will play all their matches in Dubai on a hybrid basis.

Also Check- Champions Trophy 2025: India announce squad, Jasprit Bumrah's availability subject to fitness

Meanwhile here's how the fans reacted to Karun Nair's exclusion from India squad:

NO KARUN NAIR.
Ajit Agarkar said, "averaging 750+ is simply insane, but it's a squad of 15, so we can't fit everyone".

But You Can Fit Rishabh pant everywhere with no such performance.

Hypocrisy 😔

Then what is the benefit of domestic matches#ChampionsTrophy#ChampionsTrophy pic.twitter.com/Uo3Va2bRMw

— Ravi (@p90740) January 18, 2025

If Karun Nair was as much as lucky as Shubhman Gill, he would have definitely made it to the squad.
Ajit Agarkar and Rohit Sharma should make it clear with statistics why they choose him over Karun!!!!#ChampionsTrophy2025 #KarunNair #RohitSharma𓃵 pic.twitter.com/WuSeKpMKFr

— chole_bhature_lover (@Yashraj1006) January 18, 2025

Feeling Sad for karun nair#ChampionsTrophy2025 #BCCI #KarunNair pic.twitter.com/SqXNpGlLdT

— NTR NEEL🐉 (@tarak0519) January 18, 2025

Then what's the point of stressing so much importance to domestic cricket? Karun Nair deserves to be in the team as far as his stupendous success in domestic cricket is concerned!

— Kushal Bhattacharjee (@KushalkbAITC) January 18, 2025

Karun Nair tremendous form since last 2 seasons.. Not just #VijayHazareTrophy, where is getting noticed due to sensational 100s.
Not picking an in-form player and picking out-of-form players is completely baseless, when @BCCI wants players to play domestic #ChampionsTrophy2025 pic.twitter.com/SAHv3xMisu

— Anand Thapa आनंद थापा ಆನಂದ್ ಥಾಪಾ 🇮🇳 (@Anand_Thapa) January 18, 2025

NO KARUN NAIR.

Ajit Agarkar said, "averaging 750+ is simply insane, but it's a squad of 15, so we can't fit everyone". pic.twitter.com/GVw9xMt2Sb

— OP POSWAL🇮🇳 (@OPPOSWALG) January 18, 2025

Justice for karun Nair

— Sourya (@Sourya01084931) January 18, 2025

Karun Nair instead of Shubhman Gill

— oneD (@himesh_reaper) January 18, 2025

How many runs does Karun nair needs to score????

— Gaurav Demiwal (@gaurav_demiwal) January 18, 2025

Now let's start the Karun Nair Mahabharat here when Kohli, Shreyas, KL, Pant are already there, waiting to regain some ODI game time and rhythm.

— KASHISH (@crickashish217) January 18, 2025