Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara lavished his admiration on young Indian wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel following his first call-up to the Indian team for the first two games against England. The 22-year-old was one of three wicketkeeper batsmen to be picked in India’s squad for the high-octane home series.
The 22-year-old Uttar Pradesh player has established himself as a promising young talent in the IPL 2023 and made it into the India A side. The young wicket-keeper batter recently played for India A versus South Africa A, scoring a stunning 69 runs in Benoni.
Having seen him in close quarters, Rajasthan Royals Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara was pleased with Dhruv Jurel’s selection to the Indian team through consistent performance and stated that it is one of the franchise’s major areas to generate more cricketers who can play for the country.
“Very proud and happy because one of our key motivators and one of our key kind of performance indicators away from the IPL is producing players for India and we have produced quite a lot over the years and Dhruv being a new addition,” Kumar Sangakkara said to PTI.
Jurel made his IPL debut last season and appears to be improving since then across the formats. He was picked up for the Emerging Teams Asia Cup squad and then flew to South Africa with the India A team, where he kept wickets in the second unofficial Test.
He is also a member of the team that will face the England Lions in the first multi-day fixture in Ahmedabad, which begins January 17.
Dhruv Jurel Is An Absolute Match-winner In The Short Format – Kumar Sangakkara
Kumar Sangakkara stated that Dhruv Jurel worked extremely hard on his game and was pleased with the process of making it to the test side. He also praised him for his performance for the Rajasthan Royals in the vital finisher’s role and described him as one of the absolute match-winners for the team in the shorter format of cricket.
“He’s (Jurel) a fantastic young man, a really good player who has worked really hard to get where he has. And that the fact that he’s gone through our development camps and ended up in the Test side is fantastic.”
“His work ethic, demeanor, understands of pressure. He came in last season in one of the most difficult positions and scored so many runs for us. He’s an absolute match-winner in the short format. He’s always going to do well. He’s just that kind of player,” Kumar Sangakkara added.
The 22-year-old, who made his First-Class debut against Vidarbha last year, has scored 790 runs in 15 matches at an average of 46, including a century and five fifties on the domestic circuit. Dhruv Jurel would be keen on improving his game going forward in all three formats of the game.
