IND vs SA 2025: Rishabh Pant Returns as Keeper, Dhruv Jurel Set to Play as Specialist Batter

Rishabh Pant will return as India’s main wicketkeeper and take back his batting spot, but Dhruv Jurel’s great form means he won’t be left out either. Jurel, who kept wickets in India’s last three Tests when Pant was recovering from an ankle injury, is expected to play only as a batter in the upcoming two-Test series against South Africa. Pant’s comeback has made the team selection for the first Test in Kolkata a little tricky.

Since the beginning of the home season, Dhruv Jurel has put up scores of 140, 1 & 56, 125, 44 & 6, and 132 & 127*. With three centuries, one of them in a Test plus a fifty and another 40-plus innings in his last eight first-class games, his consistent run made it hard for the selectors to leave him out.

“Jurel will probably play only as a specialist batter. There are mainly two positions where he could fit in. One option was No. 3, where Sai Sudharsan plays, but since Sudharsan scored a half-century in his last Test and the team wants stability at that spot, they are likely to keep him there,” a BCCI source said on condition of anonymity.

“The other option is Nitish Kumar Reddy’s spot, but Jurel is more likely to play ahead of him since Reddy’s bowling won’t be needed much on Indian pitches,” the source added.

Head Coach Likely to Back Dhruv Jurel for Middle-Order Stability

It is learnt that the team had serious discussions about including Devdutt Padikkal in the Delhi Test after Nitish Kumar Reddy bowled only four overs in the first innings at Ahmedabad. In Delhi, Reddy was sent higher up the batting order to spend some time in the middle but didn’t get a chance to bowl. While Gautam Gambhir wants batting depth till No. 8, the head coach is also likely to back Jurel for a longer run in the middle order, especially since India will be playing with three spinners and two fast bowlers.

While India has fielded two wicketkeepers together in white-ball matches like Dhoni with Dinesh Karthik, Parthiv Patel, or Rishabh Pant, it has rarely happened in Test cricket. The last notable instance was in 1986, when Kiran More and Chandrakant Pandit both played in the same Test team, with Pandit featuring purely as a batter.