India captain Sourav Ganguly made light of his main batsmen's poor show on the opening day of the three-day game against Central Districts on Friday, saying he is confident of his team bouncing back in the match.

"We will get better as the days go on," said Ganguly, after the day's play, which saw India's top batsmen struggling on a lively track to manage only 209 runs.

"It is the first time the boys had a hit. We had no nets since the time we've come to New Zealand. It is going to get better tomorrow and the day after," added Ganguly, who top-scored for the side with 48.

"The conditions here are similar to what you have in England and Zimbabwe -- it will seam around and there would be grass on the pitch.

"I hope the second innings is much better than what it was today."

Ganguly agreed that the first day could have been better for the visitors but drew comfort from their performance in England recently.

"We toured England and scored 600 and 500. So there is no need to panic. It is all in the mind. The top six have a lot of experience. I don't think it should matter," he said.

Ganguly said the team is a bit jet-lagged but declined to use it as an excuse for the dismal showing with the bat.

"We certainly are a bit jet-lagged and struggling to find our feet, but it is no excuse because we are professional sportsmen."

Central Districts coach Mark Greatbatch said too much wrist work by the Indians was responsible for the dismissals of
most of the batsmen.

"They went at the ball with their hands. When the ball is doing a bit, you need to keep your hands nice and close. Play straight and not with your wrists.

"They need to keep the full face of the bat opposed to using the wrists, which Indian players are very good at doing.

"They have got to play a bit better than that because the wickets here would do a bit," said the former New Zealand
opener.

Greatbatch also complimented his bowlers for skittling out India cheaply, but added it could have been better had they held their catches.

"It was not a perfect day. I think if we had held our catches we could have started our innings much early."