Jurel’s 90, which also showcased the aggressive side of his batting towards the end of India’s innings, kept the hosts in the game as it helped them reach 307 to limit England’s first-innings lead to 46 runs.
Jurel, who had scored 46 on his Test debut in Rajkot, resumed India’s innings on Sunday and took his partnership for the eighth wicket with Kuldeep Yadav (28) to 76, before the latter was dismissed lbw by James Anderson, who is now just two strikes away from reaching the milestone of 700 Test wickets and become the first fast bowler to do so.
After completing his half-century, Jurel celebrated with a salute gesture, possibly in honour of his father who is a Kargil War veteran.
Applauding the youngster for both his wicketkeeping as well as bating, Gavaskar likened Jurel’s “game-awareness” to that of Dhoni’s.
“Of course, he has batted well, but his ‘keeping, his work behind the stumps has been equally brilliant. Just by looking at his game-awareness, I want to say that he is another MS Dhoni in the making. I know there can never be another MSD; but you know, the presence of mind that he has. MSD also, when he started, it was that; and Jurel has that game-awareness, street-smart cricketer,” said Gavaskar while doing commentary on live broadcast on Sunday.
India trailed England by 176 runs when Jurel was joined by Kuldeep on Day 2 of the match. The duo not only took India safely to stumps on Saturday but came back the next day to further cut down England’s lead.