IND vs SA first Test | Assistant coach ten Doeschate hints at India playing Jurel and Pant in the XI

Teams generally tend to keep the cards close to their chest with regard to the selection of playing personnel. With the glorious exception of England – which plays cricket like poker but doesn’t quite believe in the bluff beforehand, for it announces the Test XI at least a day prior – most teams keep onlookers guessing.

But ahead of the first Test between India and South Africa beginning from Friday at the Eden Gardens here, one player, through the sheer weight of his recent performances, has forced even the usually cagey Indian think-tank to all but confirm his selection – Dhruv Jurel.

India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, on Wednesday, said that Jurel cannot be left out, and one can see why. In his last eight First Class innings, the wicketkeeper-batter has four hundreds, all of them 125 runs and above and two unbeaten, a 56 and a 44.

Against South Africa-A in Bengaluru recently, he made centuries in both essays of the second ‘Test’ and was named the Player-of-the-Series despite featuring in just one of two contests. Now, even with Rishabh Pant’s return to fitness, Jurel – who deputised for the injured Pant against the West Indies in October – is set to play as a specialist batter.

“Given the way Jurel’s gone in the last six months and scoring two hundreds in Bengaluru last week, he’s certain to play,” ten Doeschate said. “In Washi [Washington Sundar], Axar [Patel] and Jaddu [Ravindra Jadeja], you’ve actually got three batters. But I’d be very surprised if you don’t see Jurel playing.”

Not a new role

It is not an altogether new role for Jurel. He has been trusted as a pure batter by Rajasthan Royals in the IPL where Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler were ahead in the wicketkeeping pecking order. Even for India, he has done this once before – in last year’s victorious Perth Test in Australia where Pant kept gloves.

But what Jurel also brings is a certain game awareness. Though the sample size is low, he has given out adequate hints that he is a master of shepherding the tail – in Rajkot in his debut Test where he made 46 at No. 8, in Ranchi in the second where he made 90 at No. 7 and in Bengaluru last week.

Strategy first

The 24-year-old’s potential selection would mean that the development of all-rounder Nitish Kumar – who scored a big-bang hundred against Australia in Melbourne last year at No. 8 – will take a break, but ten Doeschate said strategy came first.

“Our position certainly hasn’t changed on Nitish,” ten Doeschate clarified about the player who has been released to play the upcoming one-day series for India-A against South Africa-A. “The primary thing is to set up a strategy to win the game, and if you can accommodate giving guys chances for development, that comes in.”

Click here to read article