English batsmen bat against club bowlers to reckon with Kuldeep
England have joined the list of sides to bring in rookie bowlers in the nets to prepare to tackle the more potent bowlers of the opposition by bringing in club cricketers to help their starting XI to negotiate the potential threat of Kuldeep Yadav in the first Test at Edgbaston.
As recognized by ESPNcricinfo, former Derbyshire second XI player and the rather less known brother of Nottinghamshire cricketer Samit, Akhil Patel, Essex club cricketer William Blackwell and Yorkshire teenager Sam Wisniewski are among the players brought into the English camp to simulate the Indian chinaman's variations.
Kuldeep, who took 14 wickets in the five limited-overs matches has spooked the hosts ever since the first ODI, where he bamboozled the English top order with his bag of variations to pick six wickets. Although his impact was negated by the end of the series, it was not without a lot of panic in the dressing room of one of the most dynamic sides in the world.
When England's batsmen were not busy hitting out in the practice arenas against virtually unknown bowlers rather than their own decent spin duo of Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, they were engaged with 'Merlyn', the famed bowling machine of their side, to help the batsmen cope against the tricks of the mystery spinner.
Joe Root, Johnny Bairstow, Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler will be among the players in the Test side who have acclimatized to India's most recent sensation's bowling action and have increasingly shown signs of picking him from his wrist position, a tactic most effectively employed by the Test skipper Root, who scored back to back tons in England's series sealing victories.
Although, it is not even certain whether Kuldeep will get a go in the first Test given his lack of experience in the format and the gamble always associated with playing a wrist-spinner as they are rhythm-based bowlers relying on a perfect release, rather than finger-spinners who bank on consistency to fetch them wickets.
It will be interesting to see what decision skipper Virat Kohli goes with, whether he picks the x-factor of Kuldeep or goes with his well-trusted duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, the spinners who relentlessly toiled over the 2016/17 home season to give Kohli a great start to his captaincy tenure in the Test matches.