CHENNAI: SHORTLY after the 2022 IPL final where Rajasthan Royals lost to Gujarat Titans, 21-year-old Dhruv Jurel who had spent the season on the bench walked up to Kumar Sangakkara. Jurel asked the director of cricket two things. A) if he would get a chance and b) if yes, where would his position be?
“He explicitly said, ‘you are going to play at 6-7, so you have to train like that,” recalls Jurel in a zoom call with this daily. “From thereon, I started practising scenarios. If you are batting at 6-7, you will get to bat only three overs, so you have to train like that. I used to hit, say, 150 sixes every day to get that into muscle memory,” he adds.
The work he had put in for a year did not go to waste. Even though RR did not go past the league stage, Jurel finished with the highest strike rate (172.72) for an uncapped batter. He has only 152 runs next to his name, but the fact that he got to face only 88 deliveries in 13 games sums up the role he played — come in as an impact player in the final overs and make a mark, shifting the momentum immediately.
To play such a role with consistency and efficiency in pressure situations, in front of packed stadiums, as Jurel has, skill is not the only thing that comes into play. There is obviously more to it, especially from a mental point of view. To be unflustered as Jurel has been every time he has walked to bat in the IPL — remember this is the same person who was reluctant to take up gloves in his early days — does not come easy.
Where does that quality stem from? His Instagram bio has some indication towards the answers — ‘Mamba Mentality’, it reads. Jurel recalls a quote from Bruce Lee about being like water that makes its way through cracks. A massive fan of basketball stars Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, he categorises himself as a fan of ‘mad people’ in sports and how they go about their business mentally.
“How they keep themselves so mentally fit, that guy (Bryant), only slept for 3-4 hours in a row. Like, how? He’s also a guy (like everyone else). (So I think) I can also do it, that’s kind of mentally I always like to look.
“You can’t make excuses that this is not my number (batting position) because today’s cricket is so fast that you’ll get your chance, but if you can’t do anything, there’s another one who can grab your chance. So, it’s just like if you’re getting 6-7, opening, even if I am not a batter, if I’m getting a chance as a wicketkeeper, you have to do wicket-keeping too because you have to come out from a comfort zone and do the things for the team.”
Jurel says it in a very matter-of-fact way. But there is a method to how he adapts this mentality. “I always think that if you control this (it's fine), if this is not in your hand, then don’t just dwell with your mind that time because if you work hard, sometime you will see the result or sometimes you don’t. You have to be that person that you’re doing something for yourself, otherwise, you are thinking too much (about something) which is not in your hand. I just try to think as simple as that,” he says.
It does not come as a surprise that Jurel has such a mentality, considering his journey to the top. He had to hide the fact that he played the sport at home, took some time to convince his parents, his mother had to sell her jewellery to get him a cricket kit bag, took up keeping as an additional skill after missing out on selection, piled on runs for fun in age-group tournaments. To be precise, the road hasn’t been a featherbed. Which is why, when his parents watched him play in the IPL from the stands, it was the proudest moment for them.
“My friend told me that when I stepped onto the ground, my father got emotional. So like then I met my parents in the hotel. My father told me very emotionally that ‘this is the best day of my life’.” For someone who has made his name with cameos in the IPL, Jurel’s love for red-ball cricket has no boundaries. He believes that it tests all aspects of a player, it's not about the 20 balls he faces in a T20 game and having to spend days on the field. That the format tests skills and the mindset of a player, fascinates him. Ask him whose ears he bit off the most at RR and the name that he has to say is Joe Root.
“He’s so humble. He came to me and told me that ‘I’m expecting that you’ll get in touch with me during the off-season because I know that you are going to be the superstar. I can see the potential in you’,” Jurel fondly recalls.
Whether Root’s prophecy will come true, only time will tell. However, it’s safe to say that Jurel has shown that the signs are there, that he has not just the cricketing skill, but the mental attitude to dominate the sport like the athletes he looks up to.
