"Making it very hard for coach and captain to drop him..."- Ravi Ashwin bats for inclusion of Dhruv Jurel in Indian XI as pure batter for South Africa tests

Ravi Ashwin lauded Dhruv Jurel after Indian wicket-keeper hammered twin centuries in the second unofficial test against South Africa A.

Indian Cricket Team’s wicket-keeper batter Dhruv Jurel stole the limelight with his twin centuries for India A in the second unofficial test against South Africa A. Following Jurel’s heroics with the bat, former spinner Ravichandran Ashwin backed his inclusion in Indian XI as a pure batter for the upcoming test series against South Africa Cricket Team.

The second unofficial test between India A and South Africa A is underway at the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Centre of Excellence Ground in Bengaluru. Jurel, who is the second-choice keeper in the Indian test team, hammered an unbeaten 132 runs in the first innings, and backed it up with another unbeaten 127-run knock in the second innings. What was impressive was his knocks in both the innings came at a time when India were under pressure.

With his twin centuries in the clash, Jurel helped India A to set a mammoth target of 417 runs. At the stumps of day three, South Africa A reached 25/0, needing 392 more runs for victory. India A, led by Rishabh Pant, won the first unofficial test by three wickets.

Notably, Jurel is part of India’s squad for the two-match test series against South Africa. However, with Rishabh Pant making a comeback, who missed the West Indies series due to injury, Jurel is expected to warm the bench in South Africa tests. In Pant’s absence against the West Indies last month, Jurel go the opportunity to feature in both matches and delivered for the side, hammering century in the first match in Ahmedabad.

Dhruv Jurel is making it very hard for the coach and captain to drop him: Ravi Ashwin

After Jurel’s magnificent batting against South Africa A, Ashwin hailed him on X (formerly Twitter), saying that he is making it hard for the captain and coach to overlook him from the XI for the South Africa series.

“Dhruv Jurel is making it very hard for the coach and captain to drop him from the Test match coming up. 100’s in both innings of the unofficial test against SA A,” Ashwin wrote on X.

Notably, Jurel has been in a sublime form in red-ball cricket since the last few months. So far, he has only featured in seven tests for India and is mostly picked as a secondary wicket-keeper in the squad.

Meanwhile, the first test between India and South Africa will commence on November 14 at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. The second game will be played at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati, which will host a test match for the first time, from November 22

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