Jurel the batter, Iyer in or out? The questions for India's middle order ahead of the West Indies Tests

With India’s senior men’s team currently in action at the Asia Cup, much of the focus around the national team is on the T20 format. And Pakistan. And for some strange reason, Andy Pycroft. Since the South Africa tour of 2001/02, never has the confirmation of the appointment of a match referee garnered such attention.

But even as the Test captain attempts to find his spot in a new-age short form team, preparations for the upcoming home red-ball season have been underway in Lucknow. India A drew the first of two unofficial “Tests” against Australia A, as batters on both sides made merry just a few weeks out from the first Test against the West Indies. The selection meeting for that series is reportedly set to take place later this week.

Test regulars KL Rahul and Mohammed Siraj will be available for the second match starting Tuesday, but the first result has perhaps added to India’s middle-order headache. The incumbent top six, from India’s latest series against England, is Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, B Sai Sudharsan, Rishabh Pant and Karun Nair.

Rahul and Jaiswal have been a consistent presence at the top since the tour of Australia last year, and Gill as skipper is a fixture. Pant as the keeper is also a lock, but his fitness remains in question after the foot injury that kept him out of the Oval Test.

Nair’s future as a Test cricketer appears doubtful. He is 33, and averaged 25 in a high-scoring tour of England in his comeback series. That leaves at least one spot open in the order. It could be two, as Sai Sudharsan’s place is also far from a lock just yet.

Shreyas Iyer’s return to the red-ball fold as captain of the A side has sparked whispers of a Test recall, but he did fluff his lines somewhat with a dismissal for eight in Lucknow. Regardless, he is still probably in the frame, as are Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel. This is not to forget Sarfaraz Khan – a feature in India’s last home series – and Nitish Kumar Reddy, still primarily a batter at Test level. Padikkal and Jurel in particular made compelling cases for a call-up in Lucknow, scoring 150 and 140 respectively.

Could Devdutt Padikkal come back into the Test fold?

Head coach Gautam Gambhir’s fondness for left-right batting combinations is no secret, putting Padikkal forward as a somewhat satisfying alternative to Sai Sudharsan at No.3, if India wanted to go down that road. It is also where he batted in his only Test under Gambhir, at Perth.

Heading into the Windies Tests, India may be content to pick them both in the squad, and leave the playing XI call to the last minute. The former had a difficult initiation in England, but did score an impressive 61. He also made 73 in the A game in Lucknow, falling to an uncharacteristic reverse sweep. On the other hand, even before his starring role in the A game, Padikkal made a Duleep Trophy fifty, was in excellent touch in the KSCA Maharaja T20 Trophy, and had a more-than-solid IPL. It is a good headache for India to have.

Away from the top order, though, is where the selection conundrum becomes a little more interesting. Under the assumption that Nair will not keep his spot, No.6 is anyone’s for the taking.

Reddy’s all-round ability is likely to give him a boost in the eyes of the head coach at least, but like Pant, he is also recovering from an injury sustained in England. He did not play the first A game in Lucknow, despite being included in the squad. Sarfaraz suffered a quadriceps injury during the Buchi Babu invitational tournament last month, which ruled him out of the Duleep Trophy. It would be highly unlikely for him to come straight into the XI with no match practice.

The Jurel question: More than just a wicketkeeper?

Realistically, that leaves Jurel and Iyer as contenders for the No.6 slot in the immediate-term. Jurel may anyway find a spot as the wicketkeeper if Pant is not fit, but interesting questions needs to be raised about the way India’s team management have dealt with him.

Jurel was fast-tracked to the A setup in December 2023, after just 11 first-class matches under his belt. He averaged 47 with the bat at the time, impressive for someone who had kept wickets in 10 of those games. But exclude his 249 against a significantly weaker Nagaland side, and that dipped to 31.5.

This is to say that Jurel was in all likelihood not a “performances” pick; rather, that the Indian selectors saw potential in him, beyond what was reflected on the scoresheet. And it did not take long for Indian fans to see it either.

When he replaced KS Bharat as India’s Test wicketkeeper in the home England series last year, Jurel was only 14 first-class matches old. He was highly impressive in that series, particularly with the bat in Ranchi, and has been around the national team ever since.

India saw Jurel as a keeper first. The only time he played as a specialist batter was in Perth last year, when both Gill and Rohit Sharma were unavailable. In England, he mostly received game time behind the stumps as Pant’s injury replacement before finally making it to the XI for the fifth Test, where he looked good for his 19 and 34.

It may be time for the team management to consider Jurel as a pure batter; capable of playing with Pant and not just instead of him. That may even give India the flexibility to have Jurel to keep, and let Pant play as a batter, given his recent injury concerns. One can understand that they have been reluctant to do this so far, to ensure they do not end up in a situation where the backup wicketkeeper is required and he has been injured during a match, for instance.

But there are others who can serve as keeping depth; N Jagadeesan, who was called to England, for example, also doubles up as a backup opener and is currently in stunning form with scores of 64, 197, 52* and 81 in his last four first-class knocks. The broader point is that India can find other players to sit on the bench, but not everyone can match Jurel’s ability to make it as a starting batter.

Dhruv Jurel - First-class cricket

If we were to see Jurel as a batter first, there is a strong case to be made that he holds the edge over Shreyas Iyer right now as well. Iyer’s recent white-ball form has been stellar, and his exclusion from the Asia Cup was a massive talking point. He did have a productive Ranji Trophy season in 2024-25, but has not crossed 30 in five first-class innings in 2025, mostly at a higher level in the Duleep Trophy and against Australia A. With Pant and Sarfaraz doubtful, there is every chance both Jurel and Iyer slot in at Nos.5 and 6; Reddy’s inclusion could well depend on much he would be able to offer with the ball as well.

In the longer run, much of India’s planning will depend on their evaluation of Jurel as a batter alone. But on potential, there is every chance he could make the No.6 slot his own.

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