IND vs ENG: 'Army upbringing gives Dhruv Jurel fearless attitude,' says Suresh Raina

Dhruv Jurel won Man of the Match award for his 90 and 39* in the Ranchi test.

Indian young batters Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel held their nerves together on fourth day in Ranchi as they bailed India out of the danger situation to register a hard-fought five-wicket win against Ben Stokes-led England. This result also means that India have sealed the ongoing five-match series with an unassailable lead of 3-1 with a game to spare in Dharamsala, starting on March 7.

Playing just his second test, Jurel made a career-best terrific 90 in the first innings, which kept India in the match and narrowed the deficit to 46. On fourth day’s play, he partnered with right-handed batter Shubman Gill stitched an unbeaten 72-run match-winning stand for the sixth wicket to help the hosts India get over the line in a chase of 192.

He comes from an Army family: Suresh Raina on Dhruv Jurel’s fearless attitude

Former Indian cricketer Suresh Raina feels that wicket-keeper batter Dhruv Jurel’s Army family upbringing has given him that ‘fearless attitude.’ Raina also added that the young Indian batter had put in a lot of hard work to reach this level.

“I was impressed with his (Jurel’s) wicket-keeping, he has worked really hard. He comes from an Army family, so he has that fearless attitude of never wanting to lose anything from anywhere,” said Raina about the 23-year-old Uttar Pradesh player who made his India debut in the third test in Rajkot, scoring 46.

The former all-rounder Suresh Raina also gave credit to the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma for giving chances to young players like Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel.

“He’s (Jurel) been amazing, I have played a couple of matches with him for Uttar Pradesh. Special credit to Rohit Sharma, the way he gave chances to first Sarfaraz (Khan) and Dhruv Jurel. It is not easy to come into Test cricket and score back-to-back fifties, especially in a crucial Test match where the wicket was turning,” said Raina to PTI.

Whatever the situation demands, I want to do that: Dhruv Jurel after receiving his maiden player of the match award in tests

Indian wicket-keeper batter Dhruv Jurel, who was adjudged as the Player of the Match in India’s dominant five-wicket win over Ben Stokes-led England in Ranchi, said that his efforts have always been as per the demand of a particular situation in the match.

“Whatever the situation demands, I want to do that. In our 1st innings, I thought the more runs I score now, the fewer runs we would have in our 2nd innings. Our wickets were falling (in the first innings), and I was batting with lower-order batters, but we got partnerships with them. So they deserve some credit too,” said Dhruv Jurel after the match ended.

“Felt good playing against them (Anderson and Wood in the third Test) because I saw them on TV. Focus was on seeing the ball, not the bowler. Gill and I were discussing about making small tasks. To approach the chase in sets of ten runs each,” said Dhruv Jurel.

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