IPL 2025: Sanju Samson to hand over Rajasthan Royals’ wicketkeeping duties to Dhruv Jurel

IPL 2025: Sanju Samson to hand over RR wicketkeeping duties to Dhruv Jurel (Photo Source: Rajasthan Royals)

The Indian team has a variety of options in the wicketkeeping department, who have already showcased their talent. One of the rising talents in the side is 23-year-old Dhruv Jurel who has already displayed some great performances early in his international career and was also retained by the Rajasthan Royals for a whopping price of INR 14 crore ahead of the IPL 2025.

The plan of retaining Jurel in Rajasthan ahead of big international stars like Jos Buttler and Yuzvendra Chahal did come as a shock, but it seems like RR head coach Rahul Dravid and skipper Sanju Samson have decided a bit more for the Agra-born. In fact, Samson has openly said that he is happy to sacrifice wicketkeeping for Jurel which will not only give him that extra responsibility but also help him in assuring his place in the Test team as well.

“I have not said this on air. As I said before, we feel for the players. I think we feel Dhruv Jurel, where he is at his career, he is a Test wicketkeeper. He also needs to wear the gloves in the IPL at some point,” said Samson while speaking to AB De Villiers on the latter’s YouTube channel.

“That was discussed; we will be sharing gloves; we both will be sharing gloves. I have not captained much as a fielder, but I told him honestly ‘Dhruv, I totally understand from where you come from and what I think about you as a leader, you should keep (the wickets) in some games.’ We will see how to play around with that. Nothing should affect the team; the team comes first,” the RR skipper added.

Dhruv Jurel has already shown impressive results for India in the longest format and was one of the best batters in the BGT warm-up games. Apart from that, he averages 40.40 in Tests and 45.74 in First-Class cricket. Speaking of his performance in the IPL, he has scored 347 runs in the 27 matches he has played at an overall strike rate of 151.53.