Chappell makes his new year wish

Editor’s note: This press conference report may not be all that exciting to read now.
I'm sure, it will attain a sort of poignancy when India comeback after the 45-day tour from Pakistan. In what shape, I shudder to hazard a guess.!
Right now it is the time to make wishes, to be optimistic, to make all the right noises.
Here goes a Blog Report from New Delhi.
Team India coach Greg Chappell has urged his struggling openers to improve before the start of the away series against Pakistan.
Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag had a poor home series against Sri Lanka. "Happy is not the word I would use at the moment," Australian Chappell told a news conference before the team's departure on the 45-day tour of Pakistan.
"They haven't done as well as we would have liked them to do or as well as they would have liked to do.
"Obviously from a batting point of view, the better the starts we get, the better you'd think it will be for the team."
India play three Tests and five one-dayers. The first Test begins in Lahore on January 13. India, who won both the Test and one-day series on their last tour in 2004, are yet to decide on their opening duo. The left-hander Gambhir is in competition with recalled Wasim Jaffer to open with Virender Sehwag.
The 27-year-old Sehwag, the vice-captain, has also struggled for form and has not scored a Test century since the 201 against Pakistan in the home series last season. Against Sri Lanka last month Sehwag made 36 in the first Test, missed the second due to illness and made 20 and nought in the third. Chappell said both Sehwag and Gambhir, as well as Jaffer, were good players and he was confident they would measure up in Pakistan.
"It's about applying ourselves to what is required at that time, but I think if we do bat well at the top of the order it should make things easier for us," he said.