India's top cricketers are hoping to shed their wretched form of recent months and get their act together before the Australian series when they play a four-day practice match against India 'A', beginning in Bangalore on Tuesday.
With the Australians already in their backyard and the first Test scheduled for October 6 to 10 at the same venue, Sourav Ganguly and Co. will be looking to utilise the opportunity to get their batting woes sorted out at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.
And for those waiting in the wings to break into the squad, this is a chance to turn in impressive performances to catch the attention of the selectors and place themselves on a better footing for selection.
The focus will also be on Akash Chopra and Yuvraj Singh, with Ganguly saying last week that whoever performs better would be picked in the Test squad.
Paceman Zaheer Khan, who is hoping to return to the side, as well as three wicket-keepers - Parthiv Patel, Dinesh Karthik and Mahendra Singh Dhoni -- are also bound to come under the scrutiny of the selectors.
The teams (from):
India Seniors: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Akash Chopra, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu and Siddarth Trivedi.
India 'A': Dinesh Mongia (captain), Dheeraj Jadhav, Gautam Gambir, Mohammad Kaif, Sridharan Sriram, M S Dhoni, S S Paul, Murali Karthik, Amit Bhandari, Ashish Nehra, Joginder Sharma, Sarandeep Singh, Kiran Pawar and Y Venugopal Rao.
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