Dhruv Jurel story: When latest Test squad entrant’s mother sold off gold chain for cricket kit
Dhruv Jurel has earned his maiden India call-up as BCCI announced the squad for the first two Tests against England which starts on 26 January. A 16-member squad has been announced which will be captained by Rohit Sharma, while pacer Mohammed Shami and Ishan Kishan have not been included.
While Shami continues to recover from an ankle injury, there was no official word on why Kishan was ignored. Instead of Kishan, Jurel, a wicket-keeper, was included. He, however, is not the only keeper in the squad. KL Rahul and KS Bharat are the other two keepers which means Jurel may not get to make his debut in the first two Tests.
Who is Dhruv Jurel?
Dhruv Jurel is a 22-year-old cricketer from Uttar Pradesh. The youngster has so far played in 15 first-class matches and has 790 runs to his name at an average of 46.47. He has scored one century and five fifties.
In 10 List A matches, he has 189 runs at 47.25 with two fifties. He has also played in 23 T20s and scores at a strike rate of 137.07, scoring 244 runs so far.
Jurel plays for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. He made his debut in IPL 2023 and scored 152 runs in 13 matches at an average of 21.71 and with a strike rate of 172.73.
After IPL 2023, Jurel was included in India’s squad for the Emerging Teams Asia Cup and was also part of the India A team in South Africa. He will also turn up for India A against England Lions in the first multi-day fixture in Ahmedabad, which starts on 17 January.
Dhruv Jurel story
The talented wicketkeeper-batter had to face a lot of problems before becoming a professional cricketer. Coming from a humble background, cricket was never the first-choice career option for Jurel, at least not according to his father. Jurel’s Father was a Havaldar in the Army and is a Kargil War veteran and wanted his son to join the force or aim for a government job. However, determined to play cricket, Jurel had his eyes only on the sport.
As per a report in Hindustan Times, one of the turning points in Jurel’s life came when he was 14 and threatened to run away from his home after being denied a bat by his father. Jurel’s mother then came forward to support her son as she sold off her gold chain to buy him a cricket kit. That of course changed his life forever.
“Us waqt toh realise nahi hua (I did not realise it then) but when I understood how big a sacrifice it was, I became more determined,” Jurel told HT.
After he started doing well in Agra, he moved to Noida to brighten his cricketing prospects and once again his mother came to his rescue as regularly travelling between Agra and Noida became an impossible affair. She moved to Noida with her son to help him play cricket. Slowly and steadily Jurel started to move ahead in cricket and was picked in the India U19 team for the 2020 World Cup where he was the vice-captain.
He joined Rajasthan Royals at IPL 2022 auction at a base price of Rs 20 lakh.
India squad for first two Tests vs England: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan
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