Australia captain Ricky Ponting during a practice session in Hyderabad on Wednesday

Hyderabad: With nothing really to lose and a lot to gain, Team India hopefuls under Yuvraj Singh would try every trick in the book to pull off an upset when Board President’s XI take on Australia in the four-day warm up match starting here on Thursday.

If motivation is the issue, the Indians need not look beyond. Vice-captain Subramaniam Badrinath has already made the cut and his teammates, including captain Yuvraj Singh, would hope to give a good account of themselves over the next four days to stake their claim for the second half of the Test series against the Australians.

Australia are on the backfoot with 36-year-old leg-spinner Bryce McGain already ruled out of the first Test due to a shoulder injury. Allrounder Shane Watson is also a doubtful starter after he woke up with temperature Wednesday morning.

Australia coach Tim Nielsen did not gloss over his batsmen’s apparent weakness against quality spin bowling and hopes playing against Piyush Chawla and Pragyan Ojha would be the perfect rehearsal before they go on to face Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh when the Test series begins on October 9 in Bangalore.

“I hope our batsmen get enough practice of playing quality spin to go into the first Test fully ready to face Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. There is no better place than India to learn how to play spin. Over the next four days, we have to give ourselves the best chance to come to terms with the Indian spinners,” he explained.

It holds true for someone like Badrinath as well, who was picked by the selectors for the first two Test matches against Australia.

For captain Yuvraj, who believes he has got his mojo back, it’s time to lead from the front and prove that he is good enough to make the cut for the Test squad.

Among his teammates, both Wasim Jaffer and Aakash Chopra would love to make a statement with the bat over the next four days.

With Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in prime form, a ‘no vacancy’ sign greets both Jaffer and Chopra in the national team’s opening slot. But they at least can reassure the selectors that though their grafting is no comparison to the Delhi duo’s pyrotechnics, they can do a decent job against the Aussies.

There was a time when Irfan Pathan was one of the automatic choices but that seems a distant dream for the left-arm seamer who has to prove his mettle again and could not have asked for a better opposition.

Chawla and Ojha have been hailed as the future of Indian spin bowling and the duo would have to tie the Aussies in tangles here to sow the seed of doubt in the minds of the Australians, something Harbhajan and Kumble can exploit in the subsequent Test series.

Teams

Board President’s XI (from): Yuvraj Singh (captain), S Badrinath (vice-captain), Piyush Chawla, Aakash Chopra, Rakesh Dhurv, Manpreet Gony, Wasim Jaffer, Virat Kohli, Pragyan Ojha, Pankaj Singh, Parthiv Patel (wk), Irfan Pathan, Rohit Sharma, S. Sreesanth and Yogesh Takawale.

Australia (from): Ricky Ponting (captain), Doug Bollinger, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke (vice-captain), Brad Haddin (wk), Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Peter Siddle

(PTI)