Australia experienced a couple of boosts when Ricky Ponting won the toss and batted shortly after learning VVS Laxman would not be playing the deciding second Test in Bangalore.
The visitors, who have been defeated in their past two matches, must win to level the series or they will drop to fifth on the rankings, one spot below England.The two damaged teams reconvene four days after finishing their epic in Mohali, which India won by a wicket. Laxman failed to overcome a back injury while Ishant Sharma and Gautam Gambhir were ruled out during the week. Cheteshwar Pujara, the 22-year-old batsman, comes in for Laxman while Sreesanth and M Vijay have also been promoted.
Doug Bollinger's stomach strain provides a debut for Peter George, the tall fast bowler from South Australia. George got his first experience with the squad during a quick trip to New Zealand earlier in the year, and was called into the unit for the Pakistan series when Ryan Harris was hurt.
George's extra bounce will be an asset on a bare Chinnaswamy surface, although it also has extra moisture after lead-up rain. Conditions in Bangalore are cloudy and a top temperature of 29C is predicted.
India 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 M Vijay, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Cheteshwar Pujara, 6 Suresh Raina, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh , 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Sreesanth, 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 Peter George.
