Jurel made 90 and 39* in a Player of the Match performance in India's Ranchi Test win.
After scoring a century while batting at the number 5 spot in the first innings in the third Test, the team management stuck with him at the position in Ranchi but it didn't reap rewards. Jadeja scored 12 and 4 in the fourth Test as he batted above Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel, but fell to Shoaib Bashir in both innings.
As India attained an unassailable lead of 3-1, Cook shared his views on Jadeja's failure at the number 5 spot and said that he was unable to find the right balance between attack and defense in pressure situations.
“Jadeja in particular showed probably why he should be batting a little bit lower. Yes, he can score runs but the ability, under pressure, to find that balance between attack and defense under pressure – pressure does funny things to you. Jadeja is a world-class all-rounder, but batting at five there he struggled in terms of taking no risks because he didn’t want to get out or trying to put a bit of pressure back on as a batter,” Cook said on TNT Sports.
Cook said that India should instead trust Dhruv Jurel up the order, especially after his Player of the Match performance in the Ranchi Test. He further explained Jadeja's batting tactic and how it didn't allow him to score runs freely while on the contrary Jurel managed to do it by steering the ball in the gaps.
“But Jurel found that balance perfectly with his foot movement and sharpness of mind. Jadeja was just dead-batting everything, there’s no chance of getting any runs whatsoever. So even when Jurel is defending because he’s so sharp when he’s tucking the ball on the leg side if it’s perfect he may get a run. And that’s just the balancing act that slightly better players have – and I’m not calling Jadeja a bad player at all, he [Jurel] might just have slightly better ball maneuvering than Jadeja,” Cook said.
India and England will play the fifth and last Test in Dharamshala on March 7.