Dhruv Jurel and KL Rahul were the two early birds from India’s Test squad to arrive in Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), with the BCCI booking the two players early flights to get some match-practice in the second unofficial Test between the ‘A’ teams from the two countries. While Rahul failed to impress in those two innings, Jurel’s show turned the opportunity into a claim for a place in the eleven for the opening Test of the BGT in Perth.
With knocks of 80 and 68 while fast bowlers made life tough for the other Indian batsmen, Jurel impressed former Australia captain Tim Paine who sees no reason to not include the youngster as a specialist batsman for the Perth Test.
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Paine, who was Australia A’s coach in the match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, said Jurel’s 80 off 186 balls in the first innings was one of the most “polished” knocks he has seen.
“I don’t know if you saw much of the highlights, but after seeing him bat – even though he’s a wicket-keeper, from what I’ve seen on this tour and from India’s batting in the last couple of months, I’d be staggered if he doesn’t play,” Paine said while talking to the Australian radio station SEN on Tuesday.
“He scored one of the more polished 80s I’ve seen, and we were all sitting around as staff of Cricket Australia and thought, ‘Wow, this guy can seriously play!'”
Jurel’s role in the Indian squad as of now is of a back-up for wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, but considering India are likely to be without captain Rohit Sharma in Perth and KL Rahul out of form, head coach Gautam Gambhir might think out of the box to have Jurel open with Yashasvi Jaiswal. If not that, he could still find a place in India’s middle-order as a batsman alone.
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“He’s 23 and he’s played three Test matches, but he looked a class above all of his teammates, to be fair, and handled the pace and bounce really well, which can be unusual for an Indian player,” Paine added.
“Keep an eye out for him this summer. I think he’s going to impress a lot of Australian fans.”
Jurel first came onto the Test scene against England earlier this year for the match in Rajkot and impressed with his 46-run knock. He came close to scoring a century in the next match at Ranchi, where he made 90.
Jurel’s nascent three-Test career has seen him aggregate 190 runs in four innings at an average of 63.33. And with his good show in Melbourne, it won’t be a surprise to see him bat in Perth as well in 10 days’ time.
“Even though it’s going to be another step up against the big three (Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood), it looks like he has the game to play Test cricket,” Paine concluded.
