England's blue-blooded spin hope Alex Loudon knows he is labelled a 'toff' in many quarters - but he will gladly trade a few jibes at his privileged background for a Test place against Pakistan.

Eton-educated Loudon, who has been fast-tracked into England's tour squad thanks to his developing ability to bowl the off-spinner's variant 'doosra' delivery, has already discovered some of his new colleagues are not averse to pointing out he might have had a few advantages in life.

But at 25, the Warwickshire all-rounder is mature enough to resist rising to the bait, focusing his attention instead on improving his cricketing skills, particularly when it comes to disguising and perfecting his 'other' ball.

Loudon first discovered the knack almost seven years ago - with the help of a schoolfriend he describes as being the son of a Punjabi 'Robbie Williams' - and he has since continued to trawl advice from round the world as he tries to bamboozle batsmen.

Among those who have so far been scuppered by his wiles are England batsman Mark Butcher, while Pakistani off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq, a pioneer of the 'doosra', has helped him.

It was the less-famous Gurikk Maan, though, who first put Loudon on the 'doosra' track when both were teenage pupils at Eton.

"I did it because it was going to be something fun. Anything different is good to work on and exciting when it comes off," said Loudon.

"It started when I had a friend at school who had an Indian pop-star father - a Punjabi singer, the same level as Robbie Williams in England - and together we realised I could bowl it."

Loudon's initial day job at Kent was as a batting allrounder, although he continued to dabble with the ' doosra' - a delivery which looks like an off-break but moves in the opposite direction when it pitches - and started using it regularly in first-class cricket after his switch to Edgbaston this year. Now he is part of England's three-Test tour which begins in earnest with a three-day warmup match in Rawalpindi next week.

"It is still early stages but, if I can improve that part of my armoury, it is going to help me," he said.

"I've tried it for a long while but it is a long way off from being the finished article, as is the rest of my game, so I have a lot to do."

Loudon acknowledges that, in its current state, his ' doosra' is detectable to some expert eyes.

"A couple of people see it prior to my delivery, but not many. I think if others spot it, then it is in the air as opposed to a change in my action," he said.

"Last year, I went out to India and bowled a lot with some young kids and that is always going to be a learning experience. This last season I spoke to Saqi [Saqlain], and he was very helpful too."

If Loudon's task on the field revolves around his spinning fingers, he has some talking to do off it as he tries to gently dissuade his teammates from the shorthand of that 'toff' tag.

He at least has a pathfinder in the shape of 'Lord Brocket', aka opening batsman Andrew Strauss, who has a Radley and Oxford background.

Loudon sounds resigned to a degree, though, that some mickey-takers will persist, while he reports England's early attempts to saddle him with a suitable nickname have been unsuccessful.

"I am sure it will be part of the banter in the early days. I have experienced it a bit already, so I am looking forward to developments on that one," he said.