Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel opined on his salute celebration after reaching his half-century on Day 3 of the Ranchi Test against England on Sunday, February 25 which was for his father Nem Chand, a Kargil war veteran. Jurel, playing in only his second Test, top-scored for India with 90 off 149 in the Indians’ first innings. He added key partnerships with lower-order batters Kuldeep Yadav (28) and Akash Deep (9) to lead India’s fightback after they were 177/7 as well. India eventually finished with 307, restricting England’s first-innings lead to 46 as well.
Opening up about the salute, he was quoted as saying by PTI: ‘It was for my father. Yesterday [Saturday] I spoke to him. My father indirectly told me ‘ek salute to dikha de (show me the salute once)’. He was a Kargil war veteran so my celebration was for him. We both come from UP, we have good understanding, played a lot of domestic cricket together, we kept talking with each other and it helped in our partnership.”
He was asked if he had any specific plan while batting with tail-enders, to which Dhruv Jurel replied: “There was no specific plan, but it is important to show confidence and faith. I had to tell them that you can bat. That is what we planned and it worked out. Both (Akash Deep and Siraj) are decent batters, they bat in IPL as well. I told them the same and it was necessary. They did well.”
After Kuldeep’s dismissal, Dhruv Jurel added 40 runs for the ninth wicket to Akash Deep as well. He also shed light on his preparations for a series and shared that he believes in the visualization and manifestation process apart from hard work.
“Hard work is there, but I believe in visualization and manifestation. Whatever match or series, one or two weeks prior I start preparation looking at the bowling line-up, who will bowl and how will I play them. I play out the scenarios and it helps,” Dhruv Jurel explained. “I visualised that whoever is the bowler, be it Anderson, Mark Wood, Hartley, whatever they bowl, I see their videos where they bowl and where are my zones and how can I hit them.”
