India, May 31 -- Test cricket has a new ambassador, but it hasn't yet won over. Dale Steyn thinks it should.

The former South Africa fast bowler, one of the most lethal red-ball cricketers the sport has ever produced, turned to social media with a message pointed directly at India's most talked-about teenager. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, he suggested, carries a power no administrator's roadshow or broadcaster's marketing campaign can replicate: the ability to make the world's most gifted young player want to play Test cricket.

"There's no bigger advertisement for Test cricket than if Sooryavanshi tells the world his dream is to play red ball for India," Steyn wrote on X. "Our hopes sit with you, young sir."

The message was short. The weight ...