Ahmedabad : Dhruv Jurel has a unique routine. Before facing every delivery, he touches the turf, his chest, and then says a prayer.The talented UP keeper-bat is clearly a creature of habit, and routines probably help him focus better. He does the same during practice. But don’t try these routines without skill and strong basics. The Agra-born 24-year-old has a sound defensive technique that helps him keep the good deliveries away. He also has the ruthlessness to keep a flagging attack down, and like the modern T20 batter, he possesses the attacking game to break the shackles when needed.Heavily trolled during the IPL, when he was set but could not guide the Rajasthan Royals across the line in routine run-chases, Jurel was in no mood to let go of the opportunity that he had on Friday, Day Two of the first Test against West Indies at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Relishing the chance to bat at No. 5, Jurel scored 125 (210b, 15×4, 3×6) to get to his maiden Test hundred and became the 12th Indian keeper-bat to reach three figures. He also became the fifth Indian stumper (after Vijay Manjrekar, Farookh Engineer, Ajay Ratra, and Wriddhiman Saha) to score their maiden ton vs West Indies. In the process, he added a match-winning 206-run stand with Ravindra Jadeja (104*, 176b, 6×4, 5×6) for the fifth wicket. That stand and century from KL Rahul 100 (197b, 12×4) and a half-century from skipper Shubman Gill 50 (100b, 5×4) enabled India to end the day at 448/5 and a mammoth lead of 286 runs with five wickets in hand. Washington Sundar (9*) was keeping Jadeja company at stumps.Jurel, who got in the XI only because Rishabh Pant is still injured, came into the game on the back of a 140 and 56 against Australia A in Lucknow in the two games he played for India A. From the outset, he looked in good touch. He danced down the track to hit Roston Chase for two sixes over mid-wicket. Against pacers Jayden Seales, Johann Layne, and Justin Greaves, he used the batting crease well to rock back and play square off the wicket on the off side.There were shades of the 90 he scored at Ranchi against England in 2024 to rescue India from 177-7. That, though, was a crisis situation. India were chasing England’s first innings total of 353, and the series was well poised, and the UP keeper bat only had the tail for company. In Ahmedabad, the top-order had laid the platform, and the bowling attack was modest. But that is when desire and ruthlessness come to the fore. Jurel showed that. Jadeja did it too. Coach Gautam Gambhir would have liked it if captain Gill (perished to a poorly executed reverse sweep) and Rahul (gave away the chance to score a daddy hundred) had shown it too.How do you decipher what Jadeja is worth to the Indian Test side? The think tank obviously value him highly, and the selectors rewarded the Saurashtra superstar with the responsibility of being vice-captain to Gill. With 330 wickets in 86 Tests, he is fifth in the all-time list of highest Indian wicket-takers.
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What do you think about Dhruv Jurel’s unique pre-delivery routine?
With 3989 runs, he is 18th in the list of top run-scorers. On Friday, Jadeja once again showed why he is such an elite-level performer. Jomel Warrican had just dismissed KL Rahul with a delivery that spun and defeated the batter’s drive in the first over after lunch, as the ball landed in Greaves’ hand at extra cover. With the odd ball spinning from the rough and also keeping low, Warrican, who had been curiously used for only two overs before lunch, was a threat. Jadeja decided to counterattack.Being a spinner himself, he knows what can happen on such tracks if a spinner is allowed to settle down. The West Indies vice-captain had been bowling smartly. He kept tossing the ball up whenever he bowled wide and also bowled slower. When he bowled at the stumps, he chose to hurl darts. Jadeja hit him for two sixes in his 11th over and disturbed his rhythm, and once the accuracy vanished, the singles and twos came, and rotation of the strike with Jurel became easy. Before reaching his 50, he belted Warrican for two more sixes. All the while, as Jurel kept getting closer to his ton, the advice kept coming from the senior pro, and when he got past the mark, Jadeja celebrated it like he had scored one himself. A few minutes later, Jadeja wielded the sword to celebrate his hundred.
