India plan to have Jurel and Pant together in the 11 with Pant as a frontline batter and Jurel as the wicketkeeper.
India plan up intriguing option of Jurel as keeper, Pant as batter.
On Thursday morning, while India was training at the Kent County Cricket Ground in Beckenham, the ball was flying out of the far net. As ball after ball landed on the green plastic chairs behind Long-On and in the little grassy mound shaded by trees beyond Cow Corner, the reassuring sound of a bat hitting a ball reverberated across the deserted stadium. There were also a few lofted drives that landed far away.
Dhruv Jurel deftly entered a lively strokeplay while wearing a blue India vest below a tight, short-sleeved white T-shirt.
Morne Morkel, the bowling coach for India, will soon put Jurel to the test. The former South Africa fast bowler would test both his stumps and outside edge with deliveries from 20 yards. Jurel was steady in his stride and did not falter or quiver when defending himself. Jurel’s strong and fluid technique, which enables both attack and defence, has contributed to his success since making his Test debut at home against England. His batting appears confident as a result.
The body language of Jurel, the son of a former veterinarian, is a confident stride, smile, chin-up, and chest-out. He has played match-winning innings, such as the 90 in the first innings of the Ranchi Test against England, thanks to his clarity and dedication in the batting.
Despite playing with India’s tail, Jurel did a great job navigating Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley on a low, shifting pitch where a horizontal bat was frequently lethal. Jurel boldly swept when the line was outside leg stump and charged at anything that was even slightly in his arc to hit over mid-on, mid-wicket and mid-off. He rightfully won Player-of-the-Match for bringing India back into the game after they had fallen behind badly.
Jurel put himself in the shop window once more after arriving in England, scoring three half-centuries against the England Lions in the two unofficial Test matches in June, just as he had done in the warm-up match before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia late last year with audacious knocks of 80 and 68 in testing conditions.
Unfortunately for him, none of that earned him a spot in the first three Tests, primarily because India prefers bowling options like Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar and Rishabh Pant, despite his injured finger, remains indispensable. However, India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate stated on Thursday that Jurel was still a viable option for next week’s Old Trafford Test.
Experts including as former India glovesman Dinesh Karthik have given Jurel excellent marks even as a wicketkeeper. When Jurel took Pant’s place behind the wickets in the Lord’s Test, Karthik said on Sky Cricket that Jurel had good fundamentals, including a well-balanced setup that enabled him to superbly pouch Ollie Pope off Ravindra Jadeja. Under the direction of T Dilip, India’s fielding coach, who emphasised the value of taking the ball in the line of the body, Jurel practiced keeping on Thursday.
In addition to finding plenty of drift and taking crucial wickets in both innings at Lord’s, Washington will be hopeful about keeping his spot because Old Trafford is famed for giving spinners bounce. Reddy is still lacking the batting form that made him so valuable in his first series in Australia, despite taking significant top-order wickets in both innings at Lord’s.
Each case will present a challenging choice, but if called upon, Jurel will be prepared to step up to the plate.