Jurel fights, stumbles in a tight India race
Dhruv Jurel faces pressure after a mixed 2025, struggling to secure his spot in international cricket despite strong domestic performances.
Mumbai: Dhruv Jurel will look back at 2025 with mixed feelings. Did all the hard work put in translate into desired results for him? Not really. It is a delicate time for him. There’s much to prove next year.
Jurel has been getting chances in international cricket but hasn’t been able to cement his place in any format despite a bright start in his debut Test series. Intense competition for spots and an inability to make an impact in big matches are the reasons.
In the five Tests he played in 2025, except for a hundred and a 44 against whipping boys West Indies, he doesn’t have much to show for.
After the South Africa Test series, the pressure is on him. The team management went out of the way to accommodate him purely as a batter. But scores of 14 and 13 in the first Test at Eden Gardens, and 0 and 2 in Guwahati didn’t help Jurel’s cause.
Playing a wicketkeeper as specialist batter in the spot of a specialist batter is a big call anyway for the team management. It means even before entering the game, you are under the scanner. It gets more glaring when the team loses. He got the chance to bat in the pivotal No.4 and No.5 positions in three out of the four innings. But the management’s move backfired. Jurel couldn’t contribute much as India’s batting came a cropper against the South Africa bowlers in the 2-0 whitewash.
Jurel’s ability to cope with the expectations of a pure batter are thus under the scanner. The selectors picked him as a batter with the confidence that he would succeed given the amount of runs he has scored. That confidence was not vindicated.
To his credit, the Uttar Pradesh player has stayed in contention by scoring heavily in every other match. In the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, he is the second highest scorer with 307 runs at an average of 153.50. Starting with 80 (vs Hyderabad), he made 67 (vs Chandigarh) and then on Monday hammered 160* (vs Baroda).
White-ball game
As his scores suggest, Jurel is a good white-ball player as well. His performance in Vijay Hazare shows how good he is in the 50-over format. But the competition for the keeper’s spot in the ODI team is also intense. Jurel was part of the ODI squad that played South Africa, but is yet to make his debut in the format. Against SA, he was third choice, behind KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant.
The 24-year-old has the game for T20 cricket as seen in IPL. But his T20I career has been restricted to four games, the last one against England in March as he competes with Sanju Samson, Jitesh Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Pant for a spot.
Pant, a member of the 2024 T20 World Cup-winning team, has been out of favour. For the entire year, Samson and Jitesh were locked in a game of musical chairs for the role. For the upcoming T20 World Cup, Samson has been picked as the No.1 keeper and Kishan, who has leapfrogged Jitesh Sharma and Pant after an excellent T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, is the back-up.
However, Jurel for now remains in the conversation by continuing to score runs.
Heavy competition
The selectors will have to take into account that when there’s such competition, compared to the main keeper-batter, Jurel won’t get a consistent run. When you are playing the one odd match, it is also not easy to come and straightaway get runs. It requires a lot of mental strength to deliver and then return to warming the bench.
Kishan and Samson have also found the going tough. Ishan was unable to adjust to the challenge of being in the bench for long periods and opted out until the SA Test series out of frustration. That meant he was out of the India team for two years.
Samson, 31, has been dealing with this challenge of a back-up keeper throughout his career. The year gone by was particularly tough. Asked to adjust to a new batting position in the middle order, the opener lost his spot to Jitesh. Fortunately for him, better sense prevailed and he was restored to the opener’s spot in the last T20I against SA.
As a keeper-batter, Jurel has played second fiddle since making his international debut against England in February, 2024. His best chance is to establish himself as a specialist batter.
The SA Test series was a rare opportunity where Jurel got a run of four innings, that too at home. But it was a big chance missed.
With a game for all conditions, adaptability is Jurel’s strength. He is a rare batter who plays spin well but also looked comfortable on bouncy pitches in Australia and against the seaming ball in England. It is now about translating that potential in any opportunity he gets.
