The 36-year-old left-handed batsman, was under pressure as he had scored only 96 runs in his last three-Test series in Sri Lanka. Despite such a failure, the selectors kept faith in the 'Bengal tiger' for the initial matches.

Ganguly was ignored for the five-day Irani Cup match that ended on September 27. Though this match was a trial game for the Australian series, Ganguly’s absence in the series led to speculation regarding his inclusion in the forthcoming series against Aussies. Ganguly, who has an average of 31.73 in 20 Tests against Australia along with just one century, has an overall average of 41.74.


The four-Test series against Australia will start on October 9 in Bangalore. The rest of the matches will take place in Mohali, New Delhi and Nagpur. The squad for the last two Test matches will be announced later. Sourav Ganguly is famous as India’s most successful Test captain with 21 victories in 49 matches. A prolific all rounder, Sourav made 6,888 runs in 109 Tests with 15 centuries, and 11,363 runs in 311 one-day internationals with 22 centuries.

The other senior players - Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman have also retained their places though all of them have shown lacklustre performance in the previous series. Among the newcomers, there are S Badrinath, the middle-order batsman and Amit Mishra, the leg-spinner, in the 15-man Test squad.


Badrinath made his one-day debut in Sri Lanka as a substitute for Tendulkar, while Mishra appeared in three one-day internationals during 2003. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the wicketkeeper-batsman has also returned to the squad after missing the Sri Lanka series due to fatigue.


The Indian team line-up for the first two Tests:


Anil Kumble (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Badrinath and Amit Mishra.