On the eve of the opening Test against South Africa, India head coach Rahul Dravid refused to divulge his preferred playing XI before adding that the Indian players are "professional" when it comes to handling "difficult conversation" about their places in the side.

The context was related to the conversations he may have had with senior players like Ishant Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane, who might be ignored for the series opener in Centurion.

"I think the guys have been very good about it and I think most players are professionals. I mean, obviously, sometimes you need to have difficult conversations with players and by difficult you know what I mean, telling any player that he is not playing, it's hard as everyone wants to play and be part of playing eleven," Dravid said in a virtual media conference.

According to the coach, most of the senior players have themselves taken tough decisions at some level as part of a leadership group.

"They understand situations and not the first time, they had been in situations like this and some of them are in senior positions in their state teams and they are part of decision making groups where they leave out people.

"And some of them might be in leadership positions and some of them are part of senior leadership groups which makes decisions like this, so they understand and as long as they know the reason and we can communicate about it," he explained.

Dravid believes it's good if players are disappointed at not being picked as it shows their hunger to be in the middle of action. However, he wants the players to take such tough calls in the right spirit.

"I don't want everyone to not be disappointed, as that's one of the reasons that makes people succeed at this level. You want to be playing, you want to be competing, you don't want to be sitting out.

"But how you take that as you sit out and how you respond to that and that's really a test of your attitude. So far I have had no complaints and everyone has been fantastic about it," the head coach said.

For Dravid, any decision on playing XI would be based on conditions and the opposition's preferred combination.

"We have some real quality in our squad. Obviously, we have to make a decision and only XI can play and we have to make calls, but it's just the way it is.

"But we won't get carried away and make decisions. We have had very good conversations within the selection group for the tour and having some healthy discussions about what we think is the best XI that gives us best chance to win a Test series in South Africa," the coach added.

(With PTI inputs)