Dhruv Jurel keeps wickets as Substitute - Gursharan & Madan lal

After India winning and levelling the Series – the third Test at Lords assumes additional significance.  Shubman Gill lost the toss again, but Ben Stokes this time, opted to bat !!  - it was not bazball as they hype around.  The openers played slowly and then - Joe Root and Ollie Pope batted through an uncharacteristically sedate second session at Lord's, as India plugged away without rewards in the London sun and lost Rishabh Pant to a finger injury.  

 

Not many would remember that test no. 1139  3rd Test, Auckland, in Feb 1990.  It was a draw with New Zealand scoring 391 &  483/5d  while India made – 482 and  149/0.  A talented prospect  Gursharan Singh debuted while Shane Thomson debuted for Kiwis.  Gursharan however did not play any other test thereafter and played a solitary ODI too.    

All of us know ‘Substitution’ in work and other scenario.  There are substitution rules in most sports as well.  A substitute in the sport of cricket is a replacement player that the umpires allow when a player has been injured or become ill, after the nomination of the players at the start of the game. The rules for substitutes is  Law 24 of the Laws of Cricket. 

The use of substitutes is known from the 18th century. In the report of a match on Monday, 5 September 1748, the role is termed a "seeker-out"; this was in the sense that George Smith, who was carrying an injury and had been granted a substitute fielder in previous matches, was denied one in this match. 

Today at Lords, India had to call on substitute wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel after Rishabh Pant was hit on the left hand in the second session of the first day of Lord's Test when collecting a ball down the leg side. It resulted in a long break in play during which he received attention and treatment, but Pant couldn't carry on beyond the end of the ongoing over, the 34th of Engand's innings. 

Though Substitution has been there for many many years, they were not allowed to bat, bowl and keep the wickets.  Since 2017, the regulations of the game allow for a wicketkeeper to be substituted during the match, but the substitute is not allowed to bat. In the 34th over at Lord's, Bumrah ended up slipping a ball down the leg side. Pant went for it, but was hit on the index finger. Even after taking treatment, he looked in excruciating pain as he put his gloves back on. 

Dhruv Jurel came on the field and kept wickets substituting for Rishab Pant. Jurel, who debuted in Pant's accident injury absence in 2023-24, averaged 63.33 with the bat in his first series in 2023-24. Once Pant was back in the side, Jurel played one Test in Australia as a batter alone, aggregating 12 runs across two innings. 

According to Law 24.1 of cricket, a substitute fielder can be brought on for a player who is injured or ill, or for other "wholly acceptable reasons", but they are not allowed to bowl, act as captain, or wicket-keep without the umpires' permission.  While substitutes can field in any position, including specialist ones, their primary function is to replace an absent player. 

This is not to be confused with ‘Concussion Subs’ - he first use of such a substitute was during the Second Test at Lord's in the 2019 Ashes series between England and Australia, when Steve Smith was hit on the neck by a bouncer by Jofra Archer in the first innings. He was later diagnosed as having suffered concussion and was ruled out of the remainder of the Test. Marnus Labuschagne was named as the official replacement for Smith and came to bat on the final day of the Test.  On November 1, 2019, the West Indies player Shabika Gajnabi became the first concussion substitute in women's cricket when she replaced Chinelle Henry, who was concussed after hitting the advertising boards while fielding in an ODI game against India. 

A substitute is permitted to take catches as with any other fielder. Today Jurel took a fine catch removing Ollie Pope off Jadeja.  The highest number of catches by a substitute fielder in a Test match is FOUR, a record shared by Gursharan Singh, Younis Khan, Virender Sehwag, and Jackson Bird. However, substitute fielders' catches do not count towards individual stats. 

Gursharan Singh  who debuted in NZ [read para 2] came in as  substitute for Roger Binny in the Third Test against West Indies in 1983 at Ahmedabad, and took  four   catches in that test as Sub.  

In 1970s & 1980s – Indian fielders were butterfingers with exception of few like Abid Ali, Eknath Solkar, Srinivasan Venkatraghavan, Brijesh Patel and .. .. Madan Lal.    In Dec 1978, Bishan Bedi led Indians beat Bob Simpson’s Aussie by an innings and 2 runs leveling the series 2 – 2.  Madan Lal pulled off a stunner at fine leg to dismiss Peter Toohey.   At Sydney, Bishan Singh Bedi (3-49) and Chandrasekhar (4-30) bowled out Australia for 131 before six Indians scored in excess of forty to help Bedi declare on 396-8. On the fourth day, EAS Prasanna (4-51) ran through Australia, and they finished on 243-8. The only interest on the final day was whether they would get those 22 runs and make India bat again.

 

Peter Toohey and Jeff Thomson erased 14 of these. Then Ghavri bounced, and Toohey hooked. The ball went “like a bomb” (to quote the commentator) some distance to the left – the wrong side – of Madan Lal on the long-leg fence.   Madan Lal sprinted  long even as the ball kept losing altitude at a rapid rate. He eventually flung himself to his left to come up with an incredible catch. “You wouldn’t see a better piece of cricket than this in many a long country mile,” uttered the commentator, in awe of the “zero-altitude catch”.  Ghavri cleaned up Thomson, ending the Australian innings two runs short of the innings-defeat margin, their first win by an innings away from home. 

The rule at that time was ‘Substitutes cannot field in specialist positions such as Forward short leg; Silly point’ – the Commentator remarked, perhaps Madanlal who was supremely athletic should not be allowed in any position as a substitute !   

 
Regards – S Sampathkumar
10.7.2025