Nice to have a win before
the Test: Wright

India coach John Wright said it is nice for the team to go into the first Test at Lord's, on Thursday, with a victory under its belt, but insisted India would not start as favourites against an injury-hit England.

"The boys are in good heart. We are happy to have a win here. It is good to go into a Test match with a win. Now we have two-and-half days before the Test and we are looking forward to it," Wright said, after's the Indians pulled off a 66-run victory over Hampshire on Monday.

The coach, however, made his point about the poor quality of the pitch used for the three-day game at the Rose Bowl.

"It is a new ground and obviously we would have liked to have a better surface. But we don't want to moan or groan about things when we are away."

The pitch used for the three-day match was of variable bounce and double pace and the Indians almost quit the game midway before agreeing to continue in the interest of Hampshire cricket.

"The pitch was like a red wine; it takes a while to settle down. But the game was played in good spirit and I guess both sides understood the situation," he said.

Wright didn't feel his main batsmen were inconvenienced because of the pitch, but that was not the reason why Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid were not too keen to bat in the second innings.

"It is actually a captain's decision. He makes his judgement. They all have had knocks in the last three weeks in England. They are comfortable with the decision and that's the main thing really," Wright said.

Wright did not feel the relatively poor form of two spinners, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, in this three-day game should in any way work against their chances at Lord's.

"They didn't get a lot of bowling in this match, to be honest. Kumble has been in great form throughout the one-day series. Harbhajan can probably do with a little bit of more bowling. But I remember in the last Test at Jamaica in the West Indies recently, he (Harbhajan) probably gave his best performance overseas yet," Wright said.

The Indian coach also was not too worried that his three main seamers, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar, were not played in this game at all.

"We rested the three seamers in contention. It was a conscious decision. We wanted to do that because we have played a lot of cricket."

Wright said it would be a mistake to believe the Indians are favourites for the forthcoming Test series.

"I think England will be tough. They fought well in India and we experienced that. And then we have to play well overseas, that's what we are trying to concentrate upon," he said

The injuries in the England camp was in no way inducing a sense of complacency in the Indian team, he said.

"There will always be injuries. Sometimes it affects our own side. But we have to concentrate on playing well ourselves and up to our potential. We got close to it in the one-day series and if we can repeat it."

Mail Cricket Editor