Dhruv Jurel donned the wicketkeeping gloves for 143.4 (of the 174.4) overs spanning the two England innings in the Lord’s Test in July. Yet, he didn’t have a Test cap to show for his exertions.
Jurel kept wicket for 157.1 overs in the only England innings in the next Test, in Manchester, also in July. For the second game running, he failed to add to his tally of four Test appearances.
Bizarre? Sure. True? Most certainly.
Jurel went to England in the summer as India’s reserve stumper, as the understudy to the ebullient Rishabh Pant, the new vice-captain in the Shubman Gill leadership era. Unless things went drastically wrong, Jurel’s tour would entail working hard at the nets on his wicketkeeping and batting skills, and ferrying drinks and messages to his colleagues whilst wearing the sub fielder’s bib. But with Pant, there is always a chance of things going drastically wrong, isn’t there?
Jurel during a practice session.
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File photo: R. RAGU
And so, at Lord’s on day one of the third Test, the first-choice stumper injured his left index finger while trying to stop a wild, wide delivery from Jasprit Bumrah to Ollie Pope that started down leg and kept swinging further away. Pant left the field at the end of that over, the 31st of the England innings, and didn’t come back on till more than 24 hours later, as a batter. He sat out the entire England second innings; with the ball swinging crazily after it passed the stumps, like it seems to do all the time only in England, Jurel conceded 25 byes. It was harsh on the young man because if the ball was of a different colour, those would have been wides, not byes. Fortunately, there were no recriminations when there could so easily have been – India ended up losing the game by 22 runs.
Pant recovered sufficiently in the long gap between the third and the fourth Tests to be passed fit for selection for Old Trafford, only to play a reverse sweep against Chris Woakes on to his right foot via the inside edge on the first evening. The spunky left-hander returned courageously the next morning to score a stirring half-century, batting practically on a leg and a quarter, but there was no question of him taking his appointed place behind the stumps. Enter Jurel, this time near-flawless – three catches, eight byes. But still no Test cap.
Predictably, Pant was in no position to play the series decider at The Oval – he is still unavailable for selection – and finally, Jurel saw light at the end of the tunnel. Eight months after his previous appearance, again by default, against Australia in Perth, Jurel was back in Test business. But where was accommodated as a specialist batter in the Western Australian capital, this time he took his rightful place behind the stumps. He had a Test to remember – 19 and 34 in the two innings, a handful of catches, tidy work with the gloves and, most importantly, a remarkable, series-levelling six-run victory.
This was in the first week of August. At the time, no one was sure how much time Pant’s recovery would take, but the consensus was that he would be fit for battle two months thereon, against West Indies at home. The recovery process didn’t adhere to the timeline, so Jurel got another bite at the cherry. And what a bite it turned out to be, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Jurel had an outstanding first morning behind the sticks, flying this way and leaping that as Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj struggled for control. There wasn’t a lot of swing, but a rare green-top in India facilitated lateral movement and the ball developed a mind of its own. Jurel was equal to the task, moving beautifully sideways, diving only when he had to – which was, to be fair, quite often – and almost invariably collecting the ball in the middle of his hands. Unhurried and graceful, he seemed to have that fraction of a second longer than most other stumpers do, making a demanding task appear straightforward. Watching him in action that first morning, on Thursday, was watching poetry in motion. And that is no exaggeration.
Impeccable
Later in the match, on day three when the ball began to misbehave from the bowlers’ footmarks, Jurel was impeccable while standing up to three high-class spinners. It’s not often that in India, a wicketkeeper is required to be on his toes against pace on day one and spin not long thereafter. Jurel handled that novel examination admirably. He didn’t add to his tally of dismissals, which really isn’t unusual because when the ball is gripping and turning and batters are unwilling to leave their crease, wicketkeepers seldom find the edges coming their way. But his glovework was exemplary, especially down leg when Ravindra Jadeja tried to land the ball in the rough outside the right-hander’s leg-stump in order to use that patch as his ally.
India-A’s Jurel in action against England Lions.
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File photo: Getty Images
Between those two impressive displays behind the stumps, Jurel had a wonderful outing in front of them. He walked into a terrific platform – 188 for three replying to 162 – but he was batting at No. 5 in Test cricket for the first time. There would have been the understandable butterflies, fuelled by the desire to leave his imprint even though he knew he was warming the bench until Pant’s return, presumably for the South Africa Tests next month. But Jurel showed no indication that he was feeling the heat, batting with freedom and authority from the time he caressed skipper Roston Chase’s off-spin to the straight long-off fence for the first of his 18 boundaries off the last ball of the first session of day two.
Particularly strong off the backfoot with a penchant for strokes through and behind point, Jurel is equally adept at playing in front of the stumps. His long stride enables him to get to the pitch of full-length balls so that he can play them before they start doing anything off the surface. And because he is so balanced at the crease, he is able to find the less tenanted areas on the on-side with ease, thanks to the dexterity of his supple wrists.
His wicketkeeping suit has naturally helped him develop soft hands, which means he can drop the ball dead and work the singles to rotate the strike. Like most top stumpers but with greater elegance and flair, Jurel is eager and industrious with the bat. With the potential to slot in as a specialist batter on a long-term basis, if that’s what it comes to. Which it might. In which case 125 in only his ninth Test innings is a nice string to possess.
A generation of top Indian spinners missed out on playing Test cricket during the glory days of the legendary quartet in the 1970s. Numerous batters had to put their Test ambitions in cold storage for the decade and a half from the mid-1990s when the golden generation of Indian middle-order batting ruled the world stage with an iron fist and unimaginably beautiful hands. A multitude of wicketkeepers looked on in hope when Mahendra Singh Dhoni made the big gloves his own from the time of his international debut in December 2004. Pant’s stormy arrival some eight years back has not been dissimilar to his role model’s; especially in Test cricket, he is clearly India’s No. 1 wicketkeeper-batter. For anyone else to get an opportunity, Pant has to be unavailable for selection. Which he currently is, hence the lottery that Jurel lucked on to and made the most of.
Jurel wasn’t the first, or even the second, choice as wicketkeeper after Pant was involved in a life-threatening single-car accident in December 2022. K.S. Bharat made his debut against Australia in February 2023 and played five Tests in a row before Ishan Kishan got the nod in the Caribbean that July. When India travelled to South Africa in December 2023, K.L. Rahul was asked to do the honours in the two Tests while batting in the middle order; at home in January 2024, Bharat was back in business against England but after two unsuccessful outings, he was given the heave-ho and the pendulum swung in favour of Jurel, 23 years old when he received his Test cap in Rajkot.
Delightful debut
It was quite a debut – 46 in his only hit, and a wonderful run out, racing up to the stumps to catch Ben Duckett short at the start of England’s chase of 557 for victory on day four. In the next match in Ranchi, Jurel was instrumental in India grabbing a winning 3-1 series lead. His 90 in the first innings helped India get to within 46 of England’s 353, and when India were in trouble at 120 for five, chasing 192 for victory, he immediately calmed Gill’s nerves and queasy stomachs in the Indian changing room with a composed unbeaten 39 where more than anything else, his calmness and judicious shot-selection stood out.
Pant’s return before the last international home season meant despite his heroics, Jurel had to look on from the outer. It could have been tempting for the young lad to wallow in self-pity and crib about the unfairness of it all, but Jurel’s background – his father is a Kargil war veteran – didn’t encourage that line of thought. He kept himself prepared and ready for any eventuality, using visualisation as his greatest motivational tool. It paid off when he was asked at the shortest of notices to fill in behind the stumps at Lord’s and in Manchester, and it is clearly paying off now, when he is guaranteed no more than the second Test against West Indies, starting in Delhi on Friday.
Six eventful Tests have brought Jurel 15 victims and 380 runs at an average of 47.50. Incredibly, India have won each of those six matches, including at the Optus Stadium in Perth and at The Oval in London. The Ahmedabad ton is surely the first of many. Without Pant, with Pant, alongside Pant – take your pick.
