Dhruv Jurel isn’t too experienced at the international level. Just nine Tests and four T20Is. The feeling one gets – and it’s not untrue – is that he is a back-up. To Rishabh Pant in Tests, and to the many alternatives in T20I cricket. But Ambati Rayudu feels “the world needs to talk about him a little more”. And Aaron Finch, after watching Jurel smash his T20 career-best 81 not out in just 43 balls to take Rajasthan Royals (RR) to victory over Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Friday night in their IPL 2026 game, said he had “the complete game”.
The latest innings took Jurel to 176 runs from four outings. All from No. 3, his batting position this year. When he walked out, Yashasvi Jaiswal had just fallen and RR were 21 for 1 after two overs in a chase of 202. Jurel stayed till the end. Initially overshadowed by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi – who isn’t these days? – he quickly became the picture of calm, composure, and class that RR needed in the middle.
“He has shown a lot of class in terms of skill as well as his temperament. He really stood out,” Rayudu said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show. “He looks to be a very, very mature batsman now. It’s time that he steps up in terms of all the formats of the game, hopefully for India.
“I think the world needs to talk about him a little more than what they generally do. He’s flying under the radar right now. In Indian cricket, I don’t see many people being more talented than him in terms of being a complete batsman. So he’s an amazing talent and I don’t think he should be [overlooked]. He should be given his due.”
Finch was in agreement.
“His technique, his temperament, his ability to sum up the situation, pace and spin. He’s got the complete game,” Finch said of Jurel. “How easy he made batting look when he first walked to the crease was something else. And it’s easy to just fall into the trap of saying, you know what, ‘youngster, you just keep going, I’ll get one [and give you the strike]’. He came out and just hit the ball in the middle of the bat from ball one. He was brilliant. And was a big reason why Vaibhav was able to continue to go, because he had the partner who maintained the momentum and then he was able to just keep pushing the button.”
Ask Jurel, and he chooses modesty. But it can’t be easy to bat alongside Sooryavanshi, who is very much the talk of the town this IPL season, and is currently the Orange Cap holder.
“When I bat at No. 3, he makes my batting look easy. When you go in and Vaibhav is smashing every ball, you tend to think nothing is happening on the wicket. And inside, like, cricket is not easy [like Sooryavanshi makes it seem],” Jurel said at the press conference after the match. “And [after] five overs, we were like 65-70 [73] runs. And that sixth over, Abhinandan [Singh] bowled to me, and I was just telling myself, ‘I have to cash in, I have to cash in, I have to cash in’.”
Cash in Jurel did, hitting 4, 6, 4, 0, 6 and 4 to make it a 24-run over and end the powerplay with RR on 97 for 1.
“When you go in, he’s hitting the ball so well. And then there is pressure too. That he is playing so well, I have to do something too. Again, it’s also easy because you feel that if he is playing so well, so can I,” Jurel said. “It’s a bit of both. All you need is the first boundary. To feel the ball in the middle of the bat. And then it flows.”
The new position seems to be suiting Jurel. After the high-voltage Sooryavanshi-Yashasvi Jaiswal pairing and ahead of Shimron Hetmyer and captain Riyan Parag.
“At the end of the day, you just need to win the match. Irrespective of what number you are batting at,” Jurel said. “I was batting at six, five last year. This year I am batting at No. 3. Management has shown some faith in me. So for me, batting number is just a number. My character is such that even if you ask me to bat at eight or nine, I will take it happily. I know that I have to hit the winning six or four. I have always been like that.
“It was my highest score [in T20s]. When Vaibhav got out… he made the match very easy. Six-and-a-half or seven [6.34] runs were required [per over] when he got out. So my job was to just get it done. I was speaking to Riyan and [Ravindra] Jadeja that run hard, just two, three, and one odd ball will come and we’ll get a boundary, so we’re good to go. Just try and finish it in 18-19 overs, and that’s exactly what we did.”
And that made it four in four for RR, who will now be on the road for their next three matches after a happy time in their second home of Guwahati before heading to Jaipur, their proper home ground. And with Sooryavanshi, Jaiswal and Jurel doing what they are doing, they will hope for a lot of success along the way.
