'I'm keen to open,' says Ganguly

With less than 24 hours to go before the start of the crucial second Castle Lager/MTN Test match against South Africa, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly narrowed down the candidates to open the batting with Shiv Das to a choice between two - either himself or wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta.

What seems certain, however, is that neither Rahul Dravid, who opened in Bloemfontein, nor VVS Laxman will be asked to go in at the top of the order.

"I'm keen," said Ganguly on Thursday. "It's not a question of sacrifice. It's a question of somebody pushing up the order. At six sometimes you get to play the new ball."

It is, nevertheless, a far from ideal situation for India who need to win, or at the very least not to lose, to stay in the three-match series.

Indian coach John Wright confirmed that both Dravid and Laxman were unwilling to open the batting, although he said: "I reckon we've got the matter under control."

Wright said that as an opening batsman himself, "you realise that it's a specialist position".

He said he understood the reluctance of Dravid and Laxman, "particularly so in Laxman's situation where he has tried for 22 Tests and he does feel uncomfortable in that position".

And so the captain, who now seems the most likely candidate despite the suggestion that Dasgupta might go in first, has had to put up his hand.

Ganguly confirmed that three of the 15-man squad - Venkatesh Prasad, Connor Williams and Zaheer Khan - were not in contention for Test places. This means, however, that India still have to choose four from Javagal Srinath, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh to make up their attack. And this decision, almost certainly, will be delayed until the tourists have studied the pitch and the weather on Friday morning.

If they are interested local knowledge, they might well have a word with Dave Callaghan, the former South African one-day player who is now in his 17th season at St George's Park.

"It will probably be a slow seamer on the first day," said Callaghan on Thursday, "before it flattens out on days two and three when it will be good to bat on with the ball coming onto the bat. Then it starts to get lower and it will probably take a bit of spin."

Callaghan qualified this assessment, however, by saying "it still all depends on the wind. If it blows from the east it helps the ball to swing, and if it comes from the west it dries the pitch out. It normally blows from the west, but we've had the easterly blowing for nearly three weeks now which is a bit unusual.

"And the pitch seems a bit softer today than it did yesterday. Which makes it interesting, doesn't it?"