Mumbai: Despite a promising start to his international career, Dhruv Jurel is still playing the understudy. He’s the next-in-queue to Rishabh Pant in Test cricket, and to KL Rahul in ODIs. And he may have to wait longer in T20Is with Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan having found their groove.
But there’s something about this 25-year-old son of an army man. The wicket-keeper batter is always in the selector’s scheme of things.
Like in the case of many others, a bumper IPL could open new opportunities for Jurel too. Rajasthan Royals have handed him a chance to have a fair crack at owning the season with promotion to No.3. Having batted the most at No.5, and also at 6 and 7, Jurel has been underutilised. In only his second outing in the top order, Jurel made a bright 42-ball 75 against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
During the course of the nail-biting run fest between RR and Gujarat Titans itself, Jurel’s conviction in his abilities stood out. It was a big game for the other on-trial India international, Washington Sundar, in the GT corner. He too had been promoted to No.5 from the lower order by his franchise. In a hurry to make an impression, Washington though squandered his wicket.
Jurel, batting first, took his time. He went run-a-ball for the first 17 deliveries he faced. To be conservative for so long is almost high-risk in the modern T20 game. Should you lose your wicket, the innings would stick out like a sore thumb.
Jurel, though, trusted his ability to change the momentum. Even while starting slowly, he had looked in charge with an emphatic four over covers against Ashok Sharma’s high pace. Just like that, when they decided to push for a tall score, Jurel was able to change gears. Reading Mohammed Siraj’s deliveries, Jurel carted his short ball to fine leg then met his fuller ball early, flicking it past square leg.
Equally at ease against Rashid Khan, Jurel advanced down the pitch and deposited his googly over the straight boundary. Once up and running, Jurel crossed fifty in 30 balls. By the time he was dismissed in the last over, courtesy some strong hitting against GT’s pacers, he had pushed his SR to 179. He struck at 100 the first 17 balls and ramped it to 232 the next 25 balls. A classic acceleration from an all-format batting force.
Scouted by Ajit Agarkar’s selection committee and having grown in reputation during Rahul Dravid’s time as India head coach, Jurel is known to be backed equally by Gautam Gambhir as one for the long haul.
In IPL, Jurel is an out-and-out RR find. This opportunity to bat him at No.3 has come thanks to the team management’s faith in him. There were other options. Shimron Hetmyer found great success recently at 3 for West Indies. Riyan Parag could have promoted himself too once there was an opening after Sanju Samson was traded to CSK. But RR retained Jurel for a whopping ₹14 crore—he was also retained for the sum before IPL 2025—ahead of the December mini auction. The batting promotion was their way of enabling him to repay the faith.
“I think we have not done a lot of justice to the talent that he possesses. He’s done the hard job,” RR captain Riyan Parag said.
“He’s batted at No.6-7. But when we saw we had an opportunity, I was the first to say he has got to bat No.3, and he just showed us why he can. So, hopefully this is the start for him and he goes on to get like 700, 800 runs and wins us the championship.”
