We are not expecting a greenish surface: Mishra

Amit Mishra, the Indian legspinner, on Wednesday (July 27) praised his teammates for their collective efforts in the first Test against West Indies in Antigua. Virat Kohli's maiden double ton and Ravichandran Ashwin's 7-wicket haul in the second innings to go with his ton in the first, helped India register an innings victory over the hosts. Ahead of the second Test in Jamaica, Mishra spoke with the media on his own performance, head coach Anil Kumble's influence, on the green practice wickets, among other things.

Excerpts from Mishra's press conference:

'Feeling great and concentrating on Jamaica'

Totally motivated by the win and great feeling how we won the first Test. It was a collective effort and we did well in batting, bowling, fielding, holding catches, it was a collective and an all-round effort. I feel that we can forget that now and are now totally concentrating on the Jamaica match and for us the effort will be that we can move on from the win yet continue to do well in the coming matches.

'Will look to bowl wicket-taking deliveries to the tail'

Sometimes you can get the main batsmen out but the tail can wag longer and play longer. So it becomes tough to get them out because you are concentrating on the main batsmen, and the last 3-4 wickets keep on playing. So we discussed that we will look to bowl wicket taking deliveries at them so that runs are also tough to come by. The best thing was that we were able to do it and get those wickets whenever the partnerships started forming in the lower order. Similarly while batting also in the lower order we did well, batting with Ashwin we added 100-plus runs partnership and we could get 550-plus. So that put added pressure on the team, like I said it was a collective effort and going well at the moment and we just have to build on it going forward.

'Satisfied but want more wickets'

All we can do is try and bowl well, and that is what I am trying to do. Getting wickets is not in your ends. Sometimes partnerships build up and you have to create pressure from either end. So you do that from the other end, Ashwin was getting wickets in the last match so my role was to keep maintaining the pressure and keep bowling. I am very satisfied and hopefully I can take a few more wickets in this Test.

'Kumble's experience helps'

I am very lucky that Kumble is with the coaching team now and he is with me in the team now. He is a legendary bowler and when I was debuting he had retired. So I could only talk to him intermittently. Now he is with me and we are able to talk a lot more. He keeps telling me that different aspects of batting and bowling, how to bowl to tailenders and while batting in the lower order how to bring about more confidence in your own batting. So all the experience he has helps in little things. If wickets are slow, vary your pace and all.

'Aggressive mentality to take wickets'

When you attack, you try to be aggressive and the mentality changes, and we are trying to take wickets and we talk about that more. Whatever the possibility is, we do that.

'Will wait to see the wicket on final day'

Two days left for the match, so we will wait to see the wicket on the final day. But I don't think we will get a pitch which is so green. We practiced a lot here today so that we can get acclimatized to the hot and humid weather here and so that we don't face problems in the next few days in terms of fitness and conditioning.