Dhruv Jurel can often go unnoticed, and that’s not only because he is a wicketkeeper, doing that most thankless of jobs. Batting after Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal, he almost provides a breather for the audience. But take out his 21-ball 50 after Sooryavanshi’s 97 in 29 balls in the Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), and you see why Rajasthan Royals (RR) have batted him at No. 3 in IPL 2026 – take out the 147 the two of them scored in 50 balls, and there’s only 96 more from the rest (plus extras).

“A 20-ball 50 is always brilliant. On any surface, if you can get that, it is always above par in most of the conditions,” Ambati Rayudu said on ESPNcricinfo TimeOut. “He has played a very good knock. It looks like second fiddle to what Sooryavanshi [did], but this knock in itself, I would rate it as high as a match-winning knock.

“Because in the end, that knock I feel is the difference. When you look at the match in itself, those 20-30 extra runs over par that they have scored is thanks to Sooryavanshi and Jurel. Otherwise, they have struggled big time if you look at the batting.”

On the night, against SRH, Jaiswal scored 29 in 29 balls, batting till the 11th over and never quite picking up speed. Perhaps he didn’t need to, with Sooryavanshi going the way he was. But after that, take out Riyan Parag‘s 26 in 12 balls, and there was nothing of note.

Earlier in the season, Aaron Finch had said that Jurel had “the complete game“, but by early May, when RR had lost their initial steam and were slowing down, Jurel was part of the problem too.

But RR are now in Qualifier 2, and Jurel has 508 runs at a strike rate of 155.35. If that doesn’t seem very impressive next to Sooryavanshi’s 680 runs at a strike rate of 242.85, look at the numbers for Jaiswal for context: 426 runs at 153.23.

“I won’t say I have locked anything,” Jurel said when asked at the press conference if the No. 3 spot was his for keeps. “T20 has become the toughest format now, because even if you score 240, 250, it’s not safe. What I want to be is the sort of player who can bat at three, five, seven, anywhere, and whatever the match situation is, read it well and win the game.

“Whenever the two of them [Sooryavanshi and Jaiswal] are playing, and they are playing beautifully, I should try to build a partnership with them. Not try to hit from both ends, because then we might lose a wicket. I am meant to keep the ship steady and take it forward.

“I don’t want my lower middle order to be batting in the 11th or 12th over. That’s what I have been doing, building a platform for the lower-middle order.”

Part of what Jurel has done with the bat – while being arguably the best wicketkeeper in the IPL – is down to the confidence passed on by the team management.

“I would say everyone is becoming fearless in terms of batting, and it comes from the support staff, how they back the players,” he said. “If someone says you are going to play 14 matches, I am going to play differently. So that is the mantra behind it. They back you.”