Ben Foakes has a "man crush" on Dhruv Jurel, reveals Ben Stokes

Dhruv Jurel‘s impressive batting and keeping skills have derived accolades from Ben Stokes after India won the Ranchi Test and secured the Test series on Monday, February 26.

Jurel scored 90 in the first innings and an unbeaten 39 in the second innings for India in the fourth Test in Ranchi. India were in a spot of bother in both innings. In the first innings. the Men in Blue were 177/7 while 120/5 in the second innings chasing 192 to win.

Jurel showed immense composure in the toughest of situations in the two innings. Rohit Sharma (55) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (37) added 84 for the first wicket. From being 84/1, India were reduced to 120/5 before Jurel joined hands with Shubman Gill (52*) for an unbeaten 72-run stand that took India to victory.

The opposition skipper Ben Stokes was seemingly very impressed with Dhruv Jurel’s batting and keeping. He took three catches in the Test match including a one-handed stunner to dismiss James Anderson in the second innings. Stokes in his post-match interaction spoke about England keeper Ben Foaakes having a “man crush” on the young 23-year-old Indian keeper.

“Both innings he has played really well. His keeping was also something to watch. I think Ben Foakes has a little man crush on him,” Ben Stokes said.

Earlier, India were impressive with the ball as well. Ravichandran Ashwin went past 100 Test wickets against England as he took his 35th Test fifer in the second innings. He took just one wicket in the first innings and five in the second. Ravindra Jadeja took four wickets in the first innings while Kuldeep Yadav bagged a four-wicket haul in the second innings.

So far in the Test series, the England spinners have bagged 43 wickets while the Indian spinners have bagged 46 wickets. Jasperit Bumrah who was rested in the fourth Test bagged 17 wickets. James Anderson bagged 8 wickets, the most by an England pacer.

In terms of runs, Yashasvi Jaiswal is the top run-getter of the series with 655 runs in the series so far at an average of 93.57. Shubman Gill with 342 runs is the second-highest run-getter. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett scored 328 and 314 respectively. Root after his 10th Test ton against India is now on 210 runs at an average of 30.

Dhruv Jurel Was Man Of The Match In Ranchi

Dhruv Jurel bagged the Man of the Match for his exploits with the bat in the two innings. He became the first debutant Indian wicket-keeper to win the Man of the Match award after Ajay Ratra, who won it against West Indies. Meanwhile, this is the first Test series for England loss under the “Bazball” regime. Also, this is the first time, England lost three Test matches in a row under the captaincy of Ben Stokes.

“The series has shown a lot of talent, for us and India. I love Test cricket and we’ve seen some young, inexperienced players perform and the future looks bright in this format,” Stokes said at the post-match presentation.

Also Read: “Joe Root scored a hundred, Jurel scored 90” – Rohit Sharma defends Ranchi pitch after Test series win over England