Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav has generated a lot of interest in the England ranks but former skipper Alec Stewart believes that Test matches will be a completely different ball game for the youngster if he pips the seasoned Ravichandran Ashwin in the playing XI for the first Test.
I am a massive fan of Ashwin and he is an impressive performer. Jadeja has had some good success against England as well. But if someone has got mystery, you might want to play him," Stewart told PTI in an interview.
"Virat, as a captain, is very positive and will back an attacking bowler. He will possibly believe that Kuldeep has more to offer than Ashwin or Jadeja, and then that's the route Virat will take. And then the wrist spinner has to perform, and replicate with the red ball what he has done with the white ball. We won't know until he is given a go, said Stewart.
However Stewart feels that Joe Root's successful decoding of Kuldeep during ODIs will have a bearing on the Test series.
A mystery spinner creates doubts if you haven't faced much of him, and it makes for great cricket when the batsmen are trying to figure out from 18-22 yards, which way it will go. But England, especially Joe Root, started to work out Kuldeep since Lord's and the question is how Kuldeep is going to bowl in Test cricket," Stewart said.
Stewart then explained what are the practical difficulties that Kuldeep might face in Test cricket.
All of a sudden, he won't have four men at the boundary. He will have four men around the bat, and the batsmen don't have to try and score with a positive intent. Can he bowl enough good balls and ask questions of the batsmen as he had done in white-ball cricket?
If India can see off those two world-class swing bowlers, then batting will get easier for the middle order as well. That's the beauty of Test cricket because the game is allowed to evolve over a period of time while the challenge is always there."
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