Jurel to play in place of Nitish Reddy in opening Test against South Africa

In-from wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel will play the opening Test against South Africa and all-rounder Nitish Reddy is likely to sit out, India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said on Wednesday.

The opening Test begins here on Friday.

“I think we have got a pretty good idea of the combination. Given the way Dhruv has gone in the last six months and scoring two hundreds (against South Africa A) in Bangalore last week, he is certain to play this week,” ten Doeschate said in a press conference here.

“The primary thing is to set out a strategy to win the game. Our position certainly hasn’t changed on Nitish. He didn’t get much game time in Australia.”

“But I would say given the importance of this series and given the conditions we think we are going to face, he (Nitish Kumar Reddy) might miss out in this Test this week,” he added.

PTI had reported on November 8 that Jurel will get in as a pure batsman as the wicketkeeper’s slot belongs to a fit-again Rishabh Pant.

Since the start of the home season, Jurel’s sequence of scores read 140, 1 and 56, 125, 44 and 6, 132 and 127 not out.

With three hundreds, including a Test ton, one half-century and one 40-plus score in his last eight first-class knocks, Jurel couldn’t have been ignored.