Mumbai, May 26 -- 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 Tests in 2016. Early in his career, he would thus familiarise with the wheels of fortune. Nair's 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. 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 never got to play, and was abandoned. His career nosedived. "Dear cricket, give me one more chance," Nair's despair came out in a social media post in December 2022. In the home series against England in 2016, when the right-hander scored the triple century in Chennai, he got an opening after Ajinkya Rahane was injured in the nets. A chance to add to his six Tests after so many years wouldn't have been so straightforward but for Virat Kohli's retirement. "At the moment, Karun has scored heaps of runs in domestic cricket, has played a bit of Test cricket, played a bit of county cricket. With Virat not there, clearly we're lacking a bit of experience. We felt his experience could help," chief selector Ajit Agarkar said on Saturday. It helps that the stars have aligned, but Nair wouldn't have made it back without the runs. After failing to live up to raised expectations from his early success, his career had seemingly fallen into an abyss; he was even dropped from his Karnataka state squad. Switching to Vidarbha gave him a new lease of life. He had a couple of bumper Ranji Trophy seasons - 690 runs in 2023-24 and 863 runs for the champions in 2024-25. He even impressed in the 2024 County Championship with 487 runs for Northamptonshire at an average of 48.70. Following it up with a mountain of runs in the one-day Vijay Hazare Trophy as well a blazing 89 in this IPL for Delhi Capitals was enough evidence for the national selectors that Nair still had it. Against Mumbai Indians, Nair swat-flicked Jasprit Bumrah over the mid-wicket boundary, and spotted his slower ball early and deposited it over the straight boundary. When it comes to marginal selection calls, batters passing the eye test of the selectors sometimes edge out those with volume of runs. Sarfaraz Khan has found himself at the receiving end of the selectors' judgement call. The Mumbai batter began well with three fifties and then a big hundred in the six Tests he played. Despite that, he didn't get a game in Australia. By dropping him, it almost feels the selectors have saved him from the agony of warming the bench all over again. "Sometimes we just have to make those decisions," Agarkar said. "Sarfaraz did play the three Tests (against New Zealand) in India. I know he got a hundred in the first Test, didn't get runs (after) and missed out in Australia. Sometimes those are decisions which the team management takes. Whether it's fair on somebody or unfair on someone, those are the choices that you make in the best interest of the team." Nair has been there. He was phased out of the Test team once India began playing five specialist bowlers at home under Kohli's captaincy. In England 2018, Nair was ignored and the team management included Hanuma Vihari from outside the squad for the final Test at the Oval. Soon, his name was lost in the reservoir of talent pool that Indian cricket possesses. Even now, Nair wouldn't get ahead of himself. Both he and Sarfaraz are in the India A squad for England. And although Nair has got the nod in the 18-member senior squad, he must top up with more runs ahead of the Tests. Watching Nair closely will be opposing captain Ben Stokes, who was among the eight England bowlers who could not dismiss him during his 303* in that Chennai Test. With Nair, if it's written in his stars, he could well be walking out to bat in India whites again come the first Test at Leeds....