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Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson says he’ll share gloves with Dhruv Jurel in IPL 2025 to help the latter’s career.
Dhruv Jurel scored 68 runs from 122 balls in the second inning of 2nd unofficial Test. (Picture Credit: AFP)
Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson said on Sunday that he’s happy to sacrifice full-time wicketkeeping in the IPL and share it with youngster Dhruv Jurel, who is chasing the gloveman’s spot in the Indian men’s Test side. He also gave the assurance that the arrangement would be done only after making sure it didn’t affect the team’s performance.
Jurel, 23, made his Test debut for India against England earlier this year. But despite impressing with 190 crucial runs in four innings, he hasn’t been able to play much since, thanks to first-choice ‘keeper Rishabh Pant’s return. He played in the first Test of the ongoing 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill’s absence, but could only score 11 and 1 in the two innings and was dropped when the duo returned.
“I have not said this on air. As I said before, we feel for the players. I think we feel Dhruv Jurel, where he is at his career, he is a Test wicketkeeper. He also needs to wear the gloves in the IPL at some point,” Samson said while speaking to AB de Villiers on the latter’s YouTube channel.
“That was discussed; we will be sharing gloves; we both will be sharing gloves. I have not captained much as a fielder, but I told him honestly ‘Dhruv, I totally understand from where you come from and what I think about you as a leader, you should keep in some games.’ We will see how to play around with that. Nothing should affect the team; the team comes first,” he added.
RR certainly rate Jurel highly. They retained him paying a whopping Rs. 14 crore, even if it meant letting go of Jos Buttler, England captain and arguably one of the franchise legends.
Jurel has been unlucky to not have played more in the BGT. He was the best batter for India ‘A’ when they played Australia ‘A’ in the pre-series warm-up, his technique showing more solidity than some of India’s starters in the three Tests so far.
Rohit and Rahul suffered slight injury scares in the nets ahead of the Boxing-Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Although there’s no confirmation of the veracity from the BCCI, any absence would likely put Jurel first on the list of backups.
