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Dhruv Jurel isn’t quite expressive. He is calm, though not often quiet. He comes with a positive mindset, and is always ready to put in the hard yards.
The son of an army man, he focuses on ‘process’ and ‘discipline’. Those two words, he believes, have helped him grow as a cricketer. In a competitive environment, where opportunity doesn’t come easy, long waits may often make or break careers, and for Jurel, it has been a long eight-month wait since his last Test outing, in Perth in November last year. But the 24-year-old has taken it in his stride.
Ever since landing in England a couple of months ago, Jurel has featured in just two games for India A, where he scored 227 runs in four innings and claimed seven catches. But in the senior team, Jurel has been under the shadow of Rishabh Pant, the team’s vice-captain and the first-choice wicketkeeper-batter.
While Pant featured in all the three Tests in the series so far, Jurel worked closely with fielding coach T. Dilip and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak over the last several weeks to make sure he remains fit and in the groove.
When India had a long session at Beckenham earlier this week, Jurel was among the first few batters to have a long session in the nets. As bowling coach Morne Morkel took his run-up and aimed at Jurel’s stumps to test his outside edge, the youngster remained unperturbed and relied on his natural strokeplay. The session continued for nearly 30-odd minutes as he looked confident and ready.
And as India gears up for the must-win fourth Test at Old Trafford, beginning on Wednesday, India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate indicated that if Pant, who hurt his left index finger during the Lord’s Test, isn’t ready to keep the wickets, India could look at Jurel. In that case, Pant could be used as a specialist batter. Jurel, being a steady middle-order batter, could also add depth to the batting department.
If both Jurel and Pant end up playing together, it would be a selection headache for the team management, with Nitish Kumar Reddy possibly missing out.
But the team sources indicated that Pant will be monitored over the next couple of days before taking a call on whether to play him as keeper-batter or unburden him by bringing Jurel in as a specialist keeper.
“We don’t want to go through that again where we have to replace the keeper halfway through in 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,” Doeschate said, adding: “Jurel is in the equation…”
In the previous Test, Jurel came in as Pant’s substitute after the latter hurt his finger, and ended up conceding 25 byes in the second innings, as India went down by 22 runs to concede a 1-2 lead in the five-match series. But it’s not just Jurel—several wicket-keepers have struggled in England, where the ball wobbles a lot once it goes past the batter.
Over the last few years, the young wicketkeeper-batter has earned praise from the cricketing fraternity and during the Lord’s Test, former India international Dinesh Karthik, while commentating for Sky Cricketlauded Jurel’s keeping skills and observed that he had ‘strong basics’ that allowed him to catch Ollie Pope off Ravindra Jadeja.
Despite having the skills and proving his mettle, it has been a long wait for Jurel. Now, with the series on the line and the team management not willing to risk Pant, wicketkeeper Jurel could just get lucky at the iconic Old Trafford.
