He might be drawing comparisons with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel on Friday said nobody can quite match up to the former India captain and he would rather focus on carving his own niche in international cricket.
Jurel, who made his Test debut during the recently-concluded series against England, was sharp behind the wickets, solid with the bat and quite instinctive while guiding captain Rohit Sharma during DRS calls.
His assured performance prompted the legendary Sunil Gavaskar to compare Jurel with Dhoni, but the 23-year-old, who is the son of a Kargil war veteran, begged to differ.
“Thank you so much Gavaskar sir for comparing me with Dhoni sir. But I want to say personally that no one can replicate what Dhoni sir has done,” Jurel said at the ‘India Today Conclave’ here.
“There is only one Dhoni. Always was and always will be. For me, I just want to be Dhruv Jurel. Whatever I do, I want to do as Dhruv Jurel. But Dhoni sir is a legend and he will always remain like that,” added the young wicketkeeper-batter.
Jurel called Tests the “purest” form of the game and said getting the India cap was a dream come true for him.
“It (getting the Test cap and getting the man of the match) hasn’t yet sunk in. It was a pleasure to play Tests, the purest form of cricket. I was sure that I would play Test cricket some day and it has been a dream-come-true moment for me.” “