'We need to play better and be smarter,' says Dravid

With the Mumbai pitch fracas still fresh in people's minds, all eyes were on the Green Park wicket at Kanpur, where South Africa face India in the first of the two Tests on Saturday (Nov 20). But Rahul Dravid and John Wright didn't dwell too much on the importance of the pitch as they spoke to the media after the first net session.

Dravid acknowledged that crystall-ballgazing about pitches was not one of his strong points. "I am not good at reading wickets," he said, "but it doesn't bother me much, as at the end of the day we have to do well whatever the wicket." But Wright elaborated, feeling that it would take turn at some point during the game. "The wicket doesn't have a great deal of pace in it - that's the feeling you get while standing in the nets. It's going to take turn at some point of time definitely, but when that will happen is hard to tell."

Wright denied that the team had a hand in giving instructions to the curators about the kind of pitch they wanted. "Not as far as we are aware of. The only thing we have asked right throughout the season was wickets that were good batting tracks. Obviously against Australia we didn't want tracks with lots of sideways movement: if you get it, you get it, but not play into their hands."

Wright said India shouldn't repeat what "we did at Nagpur": what he wanted was a good pitch that would last five days and then "allow the match to take its course so that both sides have the opportunity. Once you start messing around you've got a problem."

Wright was confident that India would pick at least spinners, although he acknowledged that the combination of three spinners and one seamer had worked in the last Test against Australia at Mumbai. "Whether or not an extra one [spinner] will play we will only decide tomorrow. I will have to say that the three-one combination worked well in Mumbai in those conditions, but here it's different. It was sunny yesterday, but with the mist out this morning you might need the extra seamer, so we will have to look into it."

Neither of them wanted to comment on the Sourav Ganguly affair, pointing out that "the ICC rules don't allow us to speak on the issue". Ganguly, in fact, popped in for an evening batting session, raising the possibility that Mohammad Kaif, the local hero, might miss out if Ganguly does turn out to be available for selection. Wright admitted: "It would be nice if Kaif could play, considering that he is a local boy. Obviously he has done a fantastic job this year by coming in and playing really hard - he has battled well in all conditions, and it's a hard decision to make."

Dravid felt that teams these days are arriving in India well-prepared for action, and that they wouldn't be able to take the South Africans lightly. "We will also have to improve our game and realise that just because we are playing at home we can't bowl sides out. We need to play better and be smarter."

Aware that his batsmen have been finding it difficult to score runs, Wright said that he was assured of the class of his players. And he denied ever raising a doubt over the mental application of his players. "Where did you hear that?" he asked. "My point was about being hungry, and you would say that about any side. When you are playing at this level you need to have the hunger, the attitude. We have reached a stage where we need that hunger and that attitude that keeps the team going."