Dhruv Chand Jurel (; born 21 January 2001) is an Indian international cricketer. He is a right-handed batter and

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

. He plays for

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

in domestic cricket and for

Rajasthan Royals The Rajasthan Royals, also known as RR, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 as one of the initial eight franchises, the team is owned by Manoj ...

in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He was the Indian Under-19 team's vice-captain at the

2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2020 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was an international limited-overs cricket tournament that was held in South Africa from 17 January to 9 February 2020. It was the thirteenth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and the second to be ...

Early life and domestic career

Jurel was born in a

Jat The Jat people (, ), also spelt Jaat and Jatt, are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, many Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in l ...

family in

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

on 21 January 2001. His father served the

Indian army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

and is a

Kargil war The Kargil War, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Ladakh, then part of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir (state), Jammu and Kashmir and along the Line of Control (LoC). In In ...

veteran. At the age of five, he had to have plastic surgery when his left leg was trapped under a bus tyre. Dhruv Jurel attributes his selection to the Indian Test team to the sacrifices of his parents, highlighting his father's, a Kargil war veteran, initial reluctance due to financial constraints. When he was 14, his dad took out a loan to buy him a 2000

rupee Rupee (, ) is the common name for the currency, currencies of Indian rupee, India, Mauritian rupee, Mauritius, Nepalese rupee, Nepal, Pakistani rupee, Pakistan, Seychellois rupee, Seychelles, and Sri Lankan rupee, Sri Lanka, and of former cu ...

(£20) Kashmir willow bat, and his mother pawned her only gold necklace to buy a kit bag. He started playing cricket during a

summer camp A summer camp, also known as a sleepaway camp or residential camp, is a supervised overnight program for children conducted during the summer vacation from school in many countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer residential camps ...

in his school. Over there, he saw some children playing

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and it developed his interest in the game. He then left his home in Agra and went to train at a cricket academy in Noida, on Delhi’s outskirts. He played youth cricket for

's U-14, U-16 and U-19 teams. Jurel made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

debut on 10 January 2021 for

in the

2020–21 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy The 2020–21 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy was the thirteenth edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, an annual Twenty20 tournament in India. Played from 10 to 31 January 2021, it was contested by all 38 Ranji Trophy teams and won by Tamil Nadu, thei ...

. Prior to his T20 debut, he was named as the vice-captain of India's squad for the

. In February 2022, he was bought by the

in the

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

for the

2022 Indian Premier League The 2022 Indian Premier League (also known as IPL 15 or for sponsorship reasons, TATA IPL 2022) was the fifteenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket ...

tournament. He made his first-class debut on 17 February 2022, for Uttar Pradesh in the

2021–22 Ranji Trophy The 2021–22 Ranji Trophy was the 87th season of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first-class cricket tournament in India. The tournament was split into two phases, with the league stage being played from 17 February to 15 March 2022, and the knoc ...

. Jurel made his debut for Rajasthan Royals against Punjab Kings at Guwahati on 5 April 2023, hitting 32*(15). This performance cemented Jurel's place in the side. He made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

debut on 14 July 2023, for

India A The India A cricket team is a national cricket team representing second-tier cricket of India national cricket team. The matches played by India A receive first-class and List A classification. It is a developmental team, domestic players who ar ...

against United Arab Emirates A, in the

2023 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup The 2023 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup was the fifth edition of the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup. It took place from 13 to 23 July 2023 in Sri Lanka. The tournament featured a total of eight teams, which included five 'A' teams from the full memb ...

International career

International debut (2024-present)

In January 2024, he earned his maiden Indian call-up for first two tests vs England. On 15 February 2024, Dhruv Jurel made his

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

Debut for

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in the third test against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in Rajkot. In his maiden test innings, he scored 46 off 104 balls, but did not get a chance to bat in the second innings, as India declared at 430/4 after lunch on day four. In the fourth test against

Ranchi Ranchi (; ) is the capital city and also the largest district by population of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern ...

, Jurel scored a crucial 90 runs off 149 balls in the first innings and kept India in the game as wickets fell around him and England took control. He turned out to be the highest run scorer in the innings for

. In the second innings, he stopped a collapse of the Indian batting side and stitched up a crucial 72 run partnership with

Shubman Gill Shubman Gill (born 8 September 1999) is an Indian international cricketer who is the captain of the India Test team. Gill is ranked the number one batter in the ODI rankings as of May 2025. Nicknamed as Prince of Indian Cricket and Kaka, Gill ...

to steer India to victory and hit the winning runs with a gritty 39* runs from 77 balls. In his second

test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

itself Jurel was awarded as

player of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

for his crucial knocks in both the innings which helped

to register victory over

in the match taking an unassailable lead of 3-1 in the 5 match series.

References

External links

* 2001 births Living people Indian cricketers Uttar Pradesh cricketers Sportspeople from Agra Cricketers from Uttar Pradesh India Test cricketers India Twenty20 International cricketers 21st-century Indian sportsmen Rajasthan Royals cricketers {{India-cricket-bio-2000s-stub