IND vs ENG 4th Test: Dhruv Jurel doesn’t show much expression. He maintains his composure under pressure situations. He plays with a positive mindset and is always ready to do the hard work.
Being the son of an army man, focusing on process and discipline comes naturally to him. According to him, these two aspects have helped him become a better cricketer. In an environment like the Indian team, where it’s tough to get chances, waiting to get selected in a playing XI for a long time can either make or break careers, and Jurel has waited for eight months ever since he last played a Test match way back in November 2024. But he has looked at this situation in a positive manner.
After he arrived in England almost a month back, he has played in just two matches for India A and has scored 227 runs after playing in four innings, and has taken seven catches. And in the senior team, he has been sidelined due to Rishabh Pant, who is the team’s vice-captain and is also the preferred wicketkeeper batter.
Although Pant has played in all three Test matches till now, Jurel was seen working closely with T Dilip, who is the team’s fielding coach, and India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak for the last few weeks in order to stay fit.
The Men in Blue attended a long training session at Beckenham this week, where Jurel was one of the few batters to have batted for a longer duration. Team India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel was seen bowling to him and had hit Jurel’s stumps, and that left the youngster, and he then played with his natural skills. The training session went on for about half an hour as Jurel looked quite confident.
The Shubman Gill-led side is preparing for the fourth Test match, which will be held at Old Trafford next week. Ryan Ten Doeschate, who is the team’s assistant coach, reckoned that if Pant, who had sustained a finger injury in the third Test match at Lord’s, hasn’t recovered to keep the wickets, then the team management might look at Jurel. In such a scenario, Pant would play as a specialist batter. Since Jurel is a consistent middle-order batter, his inclusion will only strengthen India’s batting lineup.
And if both Jurel and Pant are selected in the playing XI, then the team management might face a selection dilemma, and there are high chances that Nitish Kumar Reddy might be dropped.
According to a few sources, Pant would be closely observed for the next few days before the team management makes a final decision on whether he will play as a keeper-batter or reduce his workload by picking Jurel as a specialist keeper.
“We don’t want to go through that again, where we have to replace the keeper halfway through the innings. We are just trying to give (Pant’s finger) as long as possible (to heal), and hopefully, he’s good to go in Manchester in the first training session. Jurel is in the equation…” Doeschate told the reporters.
During the third Test, Jurel replaced Pant as the wicketkeeper when Pant had sustained a finger injury and had given 22 byes during the second innings as the visitors lost the match by 22 runs, and the Ben Stokes-led side is leading the five-match series by 2-1. And it’s not just Jurel, the other wicketkeepers too have had a hard time in England, where the ball moves a lot after it goes past the batter.
In the last few years, Jurel has been lauded by former cricketers, and in the third Test match at Lord’s,ex-India cricketer Dinesh Karthik heaped praises on Jurel’s keeping abilities on Sky Cricket and said that he had a strong foundation which helped him take Ollie Pope’s catch in Ravindra Jadeja’s over.
Jurel has proved his skills and his worth, but has waited for a long time. Now that everything is at stake and the team management doesn’t want to overload Pant, there are high chances that Jurel might get picked for the fourth Test match in Manchester.