Ind vs SA: Jurel, too good to ignore, set to bat alongside Pant

The first impressions about Dhruv Jurel on the international arena — ever since he made his Test debut against England last year at home owing to Rishabh Pant’s injury — have been too good to ignore. After alternately sitting in the dugout for long stretches and playing stand-in keeper for Pant, the 24-year-old seems close to cracking the code in the first Test against South Africa at Eden Gardens from Friday, 14 November.   

India's assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate was rather unequivocal during his interaction with the media on Wednesday. “I don’t think you can leave him (Jurel) out for this Test, is the short answer,” the Dutchman said on the possibility of Jurel and Pant playing together for the first time.

If there was any dilemma in the Indian think tank about fielding Jurel purely as a batter, the Uttar Pradesh man sealed the deal with back-to-back centuries for India A in the unofficial Test against South Africa A in Bengaluru. Incidentally, he had scored his debut Test century against the West Indies in Ahmedabad only last month.

If the think tank was also traditionally averse to offering a peek into the playing eleven, Ten Doeschate sounded far from it: “Given the way Dhruv’s gone in the last six months, scoring two hundreds in Bangalore last week, he’s certain to play this week. I don’t think you can leave him out of this Test. Someone will have to miss out. I’ll be surprised if we don’t see Dhruv and Rishabh play together.”

The dilemma for Gautam Gambhir & Co. could now be about playing that extra batter or an allrounder, as the state of the wicket will dictate the final composition. After a lot of speculation about the square over the past few days, both the Indian deputy and South African head coach Shukri Conrad seemed to be in sync that it seemed a ‘good Test wicket’ with something in it for seamers in the first session, and some turn from day two or three.

‘’We need to bat well for the first few days, when the conditions will be a little better,’’ Ten Doeschate said, agreeing that his batters will have to be mindful against a quality Proteas spin attack — comprising left-arm orthodox Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer and Senuran Muthuswamy. The tidy part time off-spin of Aiden Markram, who has enough IPL experience on these tracks, will also come handy in case the visitors play two of their three specialist spinners.   

‘’They have come with four spinners, though they may play three. We have learned our lessons from the New Zealand series and are preparing accordingly,’’ he said, referring to the humiliation faced by a line-up which included ‘Big Two’ Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, but left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner still picked up 37 wickets from three Tests in a 3-0 rout.

Back to the subject of two wicketkeepers in the Indian camp, Pant attracted a lot of eyeballs during afternoon practice at Eden as the entertainer returned to international cricket after 100 days since a Chris Woakes toe-crusher dealt him a body blow during the England series.

He will be back in his no. 5 spot while Jurel, with his compact technique and oodles of patience, is expected to take up the no. 3 spot — which still looks fragile with Sai Sudarshan failing to inspire enough confidence.

There has been some chatter about a so-called competition between Pant and Jurel for the keeper-batter’s spot, but the latter brushed it away during a chat with the official broadcasters. ‘’There is no competition between me and Rishabh bhai. Both of us are playing for India and whoever plays, the motive is the same: to make India win. If he plays, I am happy. If I play, I am happy. If we play together, even better. The only focus is the team,’’ he said.

Reflecting on his Test debut against England in February 2024, Jurel said: ‘’It was a surreal moment for me to make my debut for India. Playing Test cricket was my childhood dream. Getting that first cap felt like I was on cloud nine. It was very special,’’ he recalled.

Meanwhile, Conrad rated the upcoming two-Test series at par with their World Test Championship final against Australia in terms of importance. ‘’I will treat this series at par with the WTC final. That win was massive for us…see, we have so many issues in our country, and if we can give a feel-good factor to the people, it’s great. We are quietly confident of putting up a good show and creating history here,’’ he said.