Time to start afresh

For both India and South Africa, this is an opportunity to reverse a slump in form. The Indians were outsmarted, outgunned and demoralised by Australia in their last series, and the priority is to get back to winning ways. For the South Africans, who have almost forgotten what it feels like to win, the aim is to put together a much better performance, after their dismal display in their last series, in Sri Lanka.

South Africa are going through their leanest patch since their comeback to international cricket in 1991-92, having slumped to eighth spot in the ICC Test rankings after being a close second behind Australia not very long ago. They have brought in four new faces, and out of the squad only two - Shaun Pollock and Jacques Kallis - have played Tests in India before.

Graeme Smith, the captain, and Ray Jennings, the new coach, have tried to keep team spirit up by issuing some brave statements, but both will know that walking the talk is more difficult, especially on a tour of India. Speaking on the eve of the match, Smith admitted that his team were the underdogs: "They are definitely the favourites. I was looking at the newspapers in the morning and saw their stats are better than ours. We are a young, highly motivated side and touring India is always a tough proposition, but we are looking forward to the occasion and proving a few people wrong."

The tour opener will have done nothing to lift their confidence, as they were almost beaten by the Board President's XI at Jaipur. Apart from Smith and Justin Ontong, the batsmen struggled, and the bowlers had little success on a flat pitch. It was finally left to Smith and Kallis, coming in at Nos. 10 and 11, to stave off defeat.

In the past South Africa have always relied on pace, and have usually played only one spinner: on their last tour of India in 1999-2000, they had plenty of firepower in Pollock, Kallis, Allan Donald, Nantie Hayward and Lance Klusener. But now Pollock has lost much of his pace, and Makhaya Ntini, while an honest tryer, is fairly one-dimensional. Andrew Hall and Zander de Bruyn didn't make much of an impression at Jaipur, while Kallis had a side strain which forced him off midway in the game. Even if he is declared fit, he will play only as a batsman at Kanpur. South Africa's major worry, then, is their back-up bowling.

Robin Peterson, their only specialist spinner, is likely to play, leaving Hashim Amla and Justin Ontong to fight for one spot. Ontong was among the runs at Jaipur, but Amla, the KwaZulu-Natal captain, is rated highly by South African critics, and might just grab the final spot after some strong performances in the domestic season and with the A team in New Zealand. One player certain to make his debut is Thami Tsolekile, the wicketkeeper.

With Sourav Ganguly sure to play after the appeal against his two-match ban was delayed, the Indians have fewer worries. Their batting line-up is settled: Mohammad Kaif will definitely miss out in front of his home crowd. Ganguly is happy to be back, and is bullish aboput his prospects of playing in the second Test as well: "Tim Castle, the ICC-appointed lawyer, wants a teleconference with me on November 25, so we will have to wait and see what happens. I am very hopeful."

He refused to take this South African side lightly, though: "In cricket you [can] never go by names. We might say they are not as experienced as they used to be, but that does not take away the quality of the cricketers. They are a competitive side and we will have to play well."

The only issue the Indians need to decide on is the composition of the bowling attack - two spinners or three? Ganguly said nothing to throw further light on that, but the coach John Wright indicated yesterday that the local weather conditions may play a part in deciding the extra-seamer slot. The weather in Kanpur has been fairly dry, but the early-morning dew could make the first session crucial. With the pitch likely to provide increasing assistance to the spinners, Smith admitted that the toss would be vital: "It's going to be very important - both first innings are going to be very important."

India (probable) 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Anil Kumble, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Zaheer Khan.

South Africa (probable) 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Jacques Rudolph, 3 Boeta Dippenaar, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 Martin van Jaarsveld, 6 Hashim Amla, 7 Thami Tsolekile (wk), 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Andrew Hall, 10 Robin Peterson, 11 Makhaya Ntini.