Ricky Ponting's Australian side flew into India Monday to play two Tests and three One-Day Internationals against the host. The Australians, placed fourth in the official Test rankings, will leave for Chandigarh later Monday to play in a three-day warm-up game against a Board President's XI from Sept. 25. India is the top-ranked Test side in the world followed by South Africa then Sri Lanka. Ponting and coach Tim Nielsen will hold a pre-series media conference in Chandigarh Tuesday. Ponting told reporters before the team's departure from Australia late Sunday that victory over the top-ranked Indians in the Test series would be a major step in Australia's bid to return to the No. 1 spot. “We've got some work to do there,” Ponting said. “I'd love to get the team back to No. 1 again and this will hopefully be one of those steps along the way. “If we play the cricket I know we're capable of in India and we can win the series, that will do great things for us to get back up near the No. 1 ranking.” Ponting is presiding over an Australian team in transition after the retirements of modern-day greats Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. The Australian skipper said he was not expecting miracles from his team in the two-Test series in India, but would demand a high level of performance from his players, coming off a drawn series with Pakistan in England in July. India drops Yuvraj Middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh was dropped Monday from India's Test squad against Australia while Zaheer Khan and Shantakumaran Sreesanth have returned from injuries to bolster the pace department. Yuvraj has been replaced by Cheteshwar Pujara, a prolific 22-year-old from Saurashtra, in the 15-man squad selected in Chennai for next month's Border-Gavaskar series. Zaheer (shoulder) and Sreesanth (knee) were out of action during India's three-Test tour of Sri Lanka. The squad, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, contains nine batsmen, three medium-pacers and as many spinners. “Pujara is a very good player, he has done really well in the India A series. You will have to give credit to domestic performance and A series and everything else,” India selection committee chief Krish Srikkanth told reporters. “Overall, we have selected the best team. It was the sheer weight of performance, talent and of course fitness that was taken into account.” Squad: M.S. Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, M. Vijay, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S. Laxman, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, S.Sreesanth, Amit Mishra. The tourists will play Tests in Mohali (Oct. 1-5) and Bangalore (Oct. 9-13) followed by ODIs in Kochi (Oct. 17), Visakhapatnam (Oct. 20) and Goa (Oct. 24).
