We are cautious; India will be seeking revenge

There are scarcely few better sights in cricket than watching a tear-away 'quick' let loose to strut his stuff for all to see.

In South Africa we've been spoilt over the years by an abundance of big quicks such as Alan Donald, Brett Schultz and Mfuneko Ngam, to name a few. Genuine fast bowlers win games for teams all over the world and, no doubt, India will be looking to their two young left arm quicks, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan, to lead their assault.

Mornantau Hayward makes a welcome return to the South African Test cricket side after a lengthy lay-off and it's motivating for the team to see him reaching speeds in excess of 150 km/hr again.

Goodyear Park is South Africa's newest Test venue having held only two other Test matches before, both of which South Africa won. In the matches against New Zealand and Zimbabwe, the wicket proved to be batsman friendly.

Whilst we were fortunate enough to defeat India on their home soil, we are cautious that they will be seeking revenge in our backyard this time round!

Our team was finalised without much debate, but I suspect the Indians might take a little longer to work out their combination of players. The Indian squad, which has been boosted by the two left arm quickies, has plenty of options from which to choose and I imagine there will be discussions around whether to play two spinners or not.

Another interesting point will be the choice of opening partners, as obviously Tendulkar and Ganguly move down the order during Test matches. The choice of the quickies will also be interesting as there are five available and yet only two or three to be picked.

It's always a pleasure to tour Bloemfontein, as it's a small, yet hospitable city. The team met up on Thursday and the focus has been on honing our Test cricket skills, working on both discipline and patience.

I must admit it is a little strange at first to see the red ball coming at you again, but we're looking forward to it!

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Earlier column: I would have preferred to celebrate with a win