Cricket

Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat as Australia attempt to stop India, the world No.1, in the opening Test at Mohali. The hosts received some good news with Harbhajan Singh cleared of a leg injury and he will hope for an early opportunity to challenge Ponting, who has struggled against the offspinner throughout his career.

MS Dhoni wants to keep the visitors quiet on the field and will go into the match with Harbhajan and Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm orthodox, along with two front-line fast bowlers. Australia chose a three-man pace attack of Mitchell Johnson, Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus, with Nathan Hauritz the only specialist tweaker.

As India aim to defend their hard-won position, Australia are desperate not to slip any further. If Ponting's men lose the two-Test series, it will leave them ranked 5th entering the Ashes campaign in November.

Both teams have players coming into the match on limited preparations, with Bollinger, Michael Hussey, Dhoni, and Suresh Raina all recent arrivals from the Twenty20 Champions League in South Africa. They will need to settle quickly on a surface that has some green tinges but lots of cracks.

India 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Suresh Raina, 7 MS Dhoni (capt, wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Pragyan Ojha.

Australia 1 Shane Watson, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Marcus North, 7 Tim Paine (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Nathan Hauritz, 10 Ben Hilfenhaus, 11 Doug Bollinger.