Karun Nair's comeback to the Indian team proved to be forgettable with the bat, but he set a massive world record after making his first appearance for the national team in eight years during the opening Test match between India and England at the Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds.

Nair was selected in the Indian squad for the first time since 2018 and made it to the playing XI for the first time since 2017 when he played against Australia at Dharamshala. In this period, the 33-year-old never played for India in white-ball cricket either. Nair has played just two ODIs in his career, with both appearances in June 2016 against Zimbabwe, while he is yet to make his debut in T20Is.

During Nair's two appearances for Team India, India played a total of 403 matches in eight years across all three formats. The Indian batter is the first player in cricket's history to play for the country after an interval of 400 or more matches. In between Nair's two outings, India played 77 Test matches, 159 ODIs, and 166 T20Is.

Before Nair, the record was previously held by West Indies cricketer Rayad Emrit, who missed 396 international games. The all-rounder did not play any matches in international cricket between his last ODI appearance in January 2007 against India and his T20I debut in January 2018 against Pakistan.

Most International Matches Missed (between Two International Appearances)

Player	Matches Missed	Time Missed
Karun Nair (India)	402	8 Years, 84 Days
Rayad Emrit (West Indies)	396	10 Years, 337 Days
Joe Denly (England)	384	8 Years, 294 Days
Floyd Refier (West Indies)	380	10 Years, 152 Days
Mahela Udawatte (Sri Lanka)	374	8 Years, 52 Days

Nair missed 77 Test matches, which is the fourth most by an Indian behind Jaydev Unadkat (118), Dinesh Karthik (87), and Parthiv Patel (81).

Nair was dismissed for a four-ball duck in his comeback innings as he failed to make the most of a solid platform set by India following centuries by Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Rishabh Pant.

Overall, the middle-order batter has played seven test matches (eight innings) and made 374 runs. He is the only Indian, apart from Virender Sehwag to score a triple century, having reached the milestone against England in the 2016 Chennai Test. Apart from the record-breaking knock, he has not made more than 26 runs in the other seven innings.

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