Kuldeep Yadav - The luxury India have rarely allowed themselves

It's been six and a half years since Ravi Shastri made that bold proclamation. "Going ahead, if we have to play one spinner, he is the one we will pick," he told Cricbuzz after Kuldeep Yadav's five-wicket haul at the Sydney Cricket Ground at the end of a momentous tour for India. That prophecy hasn't quite panned out. Indian cricket has since gone from Shastri to Rahul Dravid to now Gautam Gambhir at the helm, but Kuldeep has played only one other overseas Test in that time - at Chattogram in 2022. He took another five-fer there, and still sat out the next match to accommodate a third seamer.

That Kuldeep averages 22.16 but has featured in just 13 matches in an eight-year-old Test career, is both befuddling and yet understandable. India have had R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja - two generational spinners with batting pedigree - close to their peaks throughout this period. And just when it looked like the third spinner's role in home Tests would be Kuldeep's, along came Axar Patel, who brought a similarly absurd bowling average while also stretching the batting till No. 9. When Ashwin's career wound down, there was Washington Sundar, ready to step up. It's starting to feel like Kuldeep, a left-arm wrist spinner, has become a luxury India have rarely allowed themselves.

Even here in England, even in a moment that seems made for him - India 1-0 down, a dry Edgbaston pitch in the offing - he may once again be passed over. If India do go with two spinners, which is a "very strong chance" according to assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, the stronger contender, would appear to be Washington. He turns the ball the other way from Jadeja, promises control, can bat at No. 8 and off-spinners including Ashwin, Nathan Lyon and Moeen Ali have done well here in recent Tests.

It might be a fair call. But it doesn't stop the broader question from hanging: if not now for Kuldeep, then when?

This isn't a one-off. It's part of a larger, unfortunate pattern for Kuldeep, now 30 and wheeling away in the nets. And waiting. The dilemma is all too familiar: can India trade safety at No. 8 for the possibility of impact? That question returned after Headingley, where India lost 7 for 41 and 6 for 31 in two innings, and where Shardul Thakur bowled just 16 overs and offered little with the bat. Of course, Thakur wasn't solely responsible for the collapses, but when the insurance policy doesn't pay off, it's fair to ask whether a bolder option might've served better.

Think back to 2020, after the 36-all-out in Adelaide. Virat Kohli left on paternity leave, but India didn't pick a specialist batter to replace him. Insteady, they brought in Jadeja and swapped 'keepers to get the one with better batting pedigree (Rishabh Pant). It was a move that required conviction, especially in the glare of the batting returns of the last innings.

Both new captain Shubman Gill and Gambhir said at different points in Leeds that India's priority is to take 20 wickets. If that's true, it brings back into focus a player who, more than many, has the skillset to make a difference: even in conditions not typically suited to spin. But again, in India's ecosystem, there always seems to be someone just a bit safer, someone who bats a little more, someone who fits more snugly into balance. "When you're 430 for 3, it's absolutely fine. But when you're 200 for 5, it's a very different ball game," ten Doeschate said about the need for balance.

Kuldeep offers what few others do - variety, drift, deception and a left-arm angle - qualities that gain even more value on flat surfaces. In last year's series between these sides, it was his injury-enforced inclusion in Vizag that helped India regain momentum. He finished the series with 19 wickets at 20.15, out-bowling even Ashwin and Jadeja.

Players like Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope, who reverse-swept with impunity against finger spin in Hyderabad, found it harder to do so against a wrist spinner who could turn it both ways. Granted, a wrist spinner has to cede some control in search of wickets, but Kuldeep also showed he could bowl dry, notably against Duckett on the third morning of the Rajkot Test when he switched to bowling wider lines to Duckett and eventually got him during a 12-over spell.

He showed in that series that he has made some batting against too. He may not score big, but he can hang in, as he did alongside Dhruv Jurel in Ranchi. In Birmingham, he's been taking tips from ten Doeschate, and facing both local net bowlers and India's side-arm specialists. These haven't looked like casual hits, they're the signs of a cricketer preparing for a role, which he may never quite get.

India have just piled up 835 runs in a Test match. The top order has shown it can hold its own against a middling England attack. If there's ever a time to hedge on bowling potency, it's now. In the Bazball era, playing it safe might just be the riskiest option of all.

And yet, in the 'Kuldeep' story, these moments have rarely ended in a cap. Will that change in Edgbaston?