Who is Dhruv Jurel? Rajasthan Royals youngster makes huge 'impact' after replacing Chahal

Sanju Samson's Rajasthan Royals lost against Shikhar Dhawan-led Punjab Kings in the eighth match of the IPL 2023 at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati. The hosts fell short by five runs of the PBKS 198-run target and ended up scoring 192 runs in their 20 overs. RR captain Samson top scored with an inning of 42 runs. 

However, no Rajasthan Royals batsman was able to stay at the crease for long and everyone ended up playing cameos, Dhruv Jurel who came in as an impact player in place of leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal impressed everyone with his batting performance. Jurel smashed 31 runs off 15 balls which included three fours and two sixes. 

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RR vs PBKS: Who is Dhruv Jurel?

Dhruv Jurel is an Uttar Pradesh-born wicketkeeper-batsman who was the vice-captain of the Indian cricket team at the ICC U19 Men's Cricket World Cup which was held in South Africa. Jurel hit 249 runs vs Nagaland in a Ranji Trophy match in December 2022 and till now has scored 587 runs in 11 first-class matches. 

Dhruv Jurel was bought by the Rajasthan Royals in the 2022 mega Indian Premier League auction but didn't receive any chance to play in that season. In his first appearance for the Royals, he put up a 61-run partnership with Shimron Hetmyer and also smashed 32 runs off just 15 balls. Jurel never looked in a hurry to score runs and remained calm throughout his innings vs the Punjab Kings. 

Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson also hailed Dhruv Jurel for his performance during the post-match press interaction and said that the franchise coaches had been working on him for a long time. “The coaches have put a lot of work behind him, we had a work week camp before the IPL, but the way they have worked a lot of time in our academies, having faced 1000s of balls and I'm happy with the way they're progressing. I was expecting the dew to come in the second innings, but it was evident that it was there right at the start, need to be prepared better for such things in the next game", Sanju Samson said. 

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Coming back to the match, Punjab Kings captain Shikhar Dhawan put up an impressive batting display and scored an unbeaten 86 off just 56 balls with nine fours and three sixes. Dhawan's opening partner Prabhasimran Singh also followed his footsteps and played a quickfire 60 off 34 balls with a strike rate of 176.47. 

Chasing the target Rajasthan Royals never got going and R Ashwin who came to open in place of Jos Buttler was dismissed for a duck by Arshdeep Singh. Buttler who came after his dismissal also walked back for 19 and Yashasvi Jaiswal also was not able to continue his form from the last match.

Skipper Sanju Samson played a 42-run knock and tried to handle the innings but he was also soon dismissed. In the end, any batsman was not able to stay at the crease for long and the hosts lost the match by five runs.