A preliminary look at the wicket indicates that the Eden Gardens track will have some juice in it for the pace bowlers, while helping those strokeplayers who are prepared to go on the front foot to get their shots going.

It is not - and Sachin Tendulkar makes no secret of this - what the Indian management wanted. ``This is not the kind of wicket we wanted to play on with a 1-0 lead in hand,'' Tendulkar told the Cricket Association of Bengal officials on Tuesday morning, after he and coach Madan Lal, with former skipper Mohammad Azharuddin in tow, examined the wicket.

Obviously, the Indian team management was hoping for a flatter track, with a tendency to assist the home team's spinners. The thinking was to make sure that India could not lose the advantage it had gained at Ahmedabad. And when you bear in mind that the tracks in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg are liable to be pace-friendly, India would have liked to enter the second leg of the home-and-away series with a comfortable lead in hand.

As far as the CAB is concerned, the new track laid for this Test is a reaction to criticism that the one for the Wills World Cup semifinal, on which India lost abjectly to Sri Lanka, was a minefield. It will be recalled that on that occasion, the track had begun to turn heavily during the second half of the proceedings, leading to Indian batsmen coming unstuck even against the innocuous spin of Sanath Jayasuriya.

Following the uproar, the officials decided to dig up the pitch and have it prepared afresh - and a fast, bouncy track is the outcome of that decision.

For India, what this means tactically is that the ploy of going in with a makeshift opener in Nayan Mongia will not work. Mongia does not have the technical competence it takes to cope with the South Africa quicks on a pacy wicket, and India will therefore need to go in with regular openers.

That Bengal star Saurav Ganguly, who passed a fitness test to the satisfaction of his captain and coach, will open is pretty much a given. The question still agitating the Indian management's minds is, who will go out with him?

Madan Lal has indicated that it would be unfair to drop Sanjay Manjrekar after just one outing. But retaining Manjrekar would mean dropping either Mohammad Azharuddin or V V S Laxman. And given that the latter was responsible, via a fighting second innings knock of 51, in India winning the first Test at Ahmedabad, it is hard to see him getting the sack. And though Azhar has not been in vintage form of late, the very fact that Tendulkar chose to take him along on an inspection of the pitch seems to indicate that the Indian skipper sets much store by his predecessor.

The only other option would be for India to bat till number seven - that is, a lineup of Manjrekar, Ganguly, Dravid, Azhar, Tendulkar, Laxman, Mongia. That leaves just four places open for regular bowlers, and Srinath, Prasad, Kumble and Joshi would appear to pick themselves.

And a four-pronged attack might be too weak to put pressure on South Africa on a track suited to batting. True, Ganguly as an occasional bowler is an additional option, but he is unlikely to be a strike force on this Eden Gardens track, and India might therefore find itself struggling to dismiss the tourists once, leave alone twice, in course of five days.

There is, of course, one other option for the home side - pack the side with batsmen, and play out a high scoring draw, thus hanging on to the lead and seeking to build on it at Kanpur when the teams square off on December 8 for the third Test.

It is an option Indian skipper Sachin Tendulkar does not much care for, though. ``The trouble with going into a game with a defensive mindset is that it is too easy to lose,'' the Indian skipper, who since taking over the top slot has brought a hugely aggressive attitude to the side in the field, said.

If India wants to look for a win - as Tendulkar says he does then the only available option is to drop Manjrekar and play five bowlers, with either Dravid or Laxman moving up to the openers' slot. And of the two, Laxman would appear to be the better choice - he has been groomed to open and, besides, it would be poor cricketing sense to disturb Dravid just when he is settling down to the number three role.

Another interesting option - but one the Indian team appears reluctant to consider - is the promotion of Tendulkar himself to open along with Ganguly. And this ploy is not as silly as it seems on the surface. Tendulkar is easily the most technically competent of the Indian batsmen - and pretty much wasted at the number four or five slot. Coming out to open might give him the opportunity of harnessing his immense skills to playing the long innings - and Tendulkar is a batsman who, even under adverse conditions, is capable of ensuring that the bowlers do not totally dominate proceedings right at the beginning.

A Tendulkar-Ganguly combination at the top - with the left-right advantage thrown in - means that Dravid at three, Azhar at four and Laxman at five can busy themselves with the task of consolidation, and thus remove the need for India to pack its side with an extra batsman. And this, in turn, will allow the home side to go in with five specialist bowlers, besides the occasional arm-turning of Ganguly.

South Africa, meanwhile, could well find them- selves benefitting from injuries to Donald and Rhodes. At the time of writing this, neither the pace ace nor the star fielder appear likely to make the starting lineup, though a final decision will be taken only early Wednesday morning.

True, Donald's blistering pace will prove a handful on the Eden Gardens track - but if he doesn't play, then it paves the way for Lance Klusener to enter the side. And Klusener, besides being an attacking fast bowler, is also very handy with the bat - and it is in batting that the tourists have proved weak.

Herschelle Gibbs, who in the tour game against the Board Presidents' XI before the first Test handled Venkatapathy Raju with consummate ease even as the Indian left-arm spinner bowled himself to a six wicket haul, is a classy batsman who, coming in for Rhodes, will also help stiffen the South African batting lineup.

This would mean that the tourists will go in with Kirsten, Hudson, Cullinan, Klusener, Gibbs, Cronje, Richardson, Symcox, De Villiers and McMillan... thus much is certain. What remains to be seen is if the Woolmer-Cronje combine will retain Paul Adams, or bring in Nicky Boje who is the better batsman.

Bob Woolmer, meanwhile, has called for neutral umpires for international Test matches. ``On the second day of the first Test,'' the South African coach said, ``we suffered a setback when the umpires gave three men out in a short span of time. It is time the ICC introduced penalties for umpires who are guilty of wrong decisions - for instance, an umpire who performs badly could be dropped from the panel.''