India, May 25 -- Only months after a near-death experience when the boat he was travelling in capsized, Karun Nair lived an absolute high in cricket, becoming only the second Indian to hit a triple hundred in Test cricket in 2016. Early in his career, he would thus familiarise with the wheels of fortune.

Nair's cricketing journey has ever since been intertwined with the quirks of fate. It was time for a positive turn again for the Nair household on Saturday after the middle-order batter, 33, was recalled into the Indian team for the five-Test series against England starting next month.

It's been eight long years since Nair played his last Test. Seven years since he last featured in an Indian Test squad, on the 2018 England tour where he...