Dhruv Jurel: Hawaldar Father Took Loan Of Rs 800 To Buy His First Bat, Mother Sold Jewellery For His Kit; UP Cricketer Now Recieves India Call-Up For England Tests
Dhruv Jurel, wicketkeeper and batter from Uttar Pradesh, will soon board a flight to Hyderabad. In that flight, he will have the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul and other sitting along side him. This is no normal flight. The plane does not just take him from one place to another in quick time, it will also take him to one step closer to his dream, which is already half realised. Dhruv was named as the third wicketkeeping option in India’s Test squad for England at home. This was a dream come true for the 22-year-old.
When he was very young, he had lied to his father that he was going for just swimming classes in his school. When father learnt that he had also enrolled for cricket coaching, he had received angry words from his dad, who was a hawaldar in Indian Army. But the father soon realised that his son was passionate about the sport and allowed him to pursie his dream. When Dhruv wanted a bat, his father arranged for Rs 800 from his friends to get that for him.
Coming from a humble background where finances were a big issue, Dhruv hated to see his father salute others. He worked hard on his cricket to ensure his father does not have to salute anyone one day. Dhruv has managed to do that.
Initially, his father wanted him to focus on getting a government job and had asked Dhruv to stop pursuing cricket. But the son had made up his mind. His father was helpless due to financial problems at home. Once when Dhruv aksed his father to buy him a cricket kit, the wish was refused. “I told my father that the kit will cost around Rs 8,000 and he was shocked after hearing the price and asked me to stop playing cricket,” Dhruv told Dainik Jagran. It was then that his mother arranged the money for his first proper cricket kit. The money came from selling off a piece of jewellery. The gold chain was sold off but today, it seems it was all worth it.
Dhruv has played U-14 and U-16 age group cricket for UP. He was then selected for India U-19 team for the World Cup in 2020. Dhruv made his Ranji Trophy debut for Uttar Pradesh in 2022 against Vidarbha and so far he has played 15 first-class matches, scoring 790 runs including one hundred and five half-centuries. His best score is 249 runs.Dhruv has also played 10 List-A and 23 T20 matches.
He was picked by Rajasthan Royals (RR) for a sum of Rs 20 lakhs in IPL 2022 mega aution but made his debut only in IPL 2023. Dhruv has played 13 IPL matches so far, scoring 152 runs at strike rate of 172.72 and has been retained by RR for IPL 2024.
Thanks to his good show in first-class cricket, Dhruv received a call-up from India A as the team went on a tour of South Africa. Dhruv stroked a 69 in one of the four-day matches and took 3 catches as well. The selectors decided to give the young man a go in the home series vs Egland. He may not become the first-choice keeper in the first 2 Tests but the experience of being in the senior Indian men’s dressing room will be a huge one for this Agra-born, right-handed batter.
An MS Dhoni fan, Dhruv hopes to follow the footsteps of his idol and become as successful a cricket, if not more, than the legend from Ranchi.