Mohali is one of the more distinctive Indian venues. The facilities are as good as they get anywhere in the world. There are five or six excellent practice pitches - and a small area for fielding - that are separate from the ground, so you can do some fine-tuning even when the match is going on. The dressing rooms are big and very comfortable. And the food is excellent!

It can be very cold and that should please the Englishmen. The first day of the third Test against the West Indies in 1994 was one of the coldest I have played in and we had about five layers of clothing on. It tends to be much cooler in January and for this match, the weather seems perfect for cricket.

The other advantage for the Englishmen is the moat between the ground and the stands almost takes the raucous crowd support out of the equation. For some reason, that slight extra distance makes it less noisy in the middle and as a player you don't feel the home support as much as at other centres.

And then there is the un-Indian pitch. It is not one where the spinners (though the SG ball should help Harbhajan Singh apart from the seamers) have done too well and generally the wicket is hard with some grass on it and tends to be bouncy. The general trend has been that the seamers have a great time on the first two hours on the first day and subsequently on the opening hour of the remaining days; it doesn't really take turn even on the last two days. Even if the team management does request a shave, I think that Daljeet Singh, the curator, will not relent, if in his opinion, it will become an unsporting Test wicket.

I think the ideal combination for India would be three seamers and two spinners. Although it might seem a little unfair to Connor Williams, Sanjay Bangar should open the batting with SS Das. Laxman should follow at No. 3, unless India has been inserted and the pitch is doing a lot, which case Rahul Dravid should bat at that position. One suspects that they will opt for Dravid at No. 3 regardless of the situation.

The team winning the toss should bowl first and Iqbal Siddiqui and Tinu Yohannan should open the bowling if India fields. Siddiqui is a maverick and he intrigues me. I've never known whether he has the right temperament or not. I have seen him bowl terribly and seen him pull out some inspired spells with the old ball. One thing is for sure - debut Test or whatever, he wont be timid on the field. He may just be the flavour India needs.

England must rely on their seam attack as well. Richard Johnson was impressive at Jaipur, in fact I haven't seen genuine seam bowling like that for quite some time. A little while back it seemed that India would have cruised through this series but recent events have altered the equation slightly. They still hold the upper had, but it may not be that easy. A casual session or two may cost them dear.

My Indian XI 1 SS Das, 2 Sanjay Bangar, 3 VVS Laxman, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 Sourav Ganguly, 7 Deep Dasgupta, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Iqbal Siddiqui, 11 Tinu Yohannan.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the late '80s and early '90s, was talking to H Natarajan. His Session by Session reports will appear throughout the series.

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