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Ganguly, captain of the squad which beat Steve Waugh's Aussies in 2001, will challenge rookie Subramaniam Badrinath for the number six position.

Uncapped leg-spinner Amit Mishra joins Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh as one of three slow bowlers in the squad.

Batsmen Yuvraj Singh, Aakash Chopra and Mohammad Kaif have all been overlooked.

Four fast bowlers have been named - Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma and Rudra Pratap Singh.

The selection raises the prospect of India's "fab four" batsmen - the enormously experienced quartet of Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman - taking on a fledgling Australian bowling attack.

Australia's only fit specialist spin bowler is the 25-year-old off-spinner Jason Krejza, a virtual unknown.

But Ganguly's presence will be viewed as controversial in some quarters. The 36-year-old has 6,888 runs in 109 Tests but did not feature in the domestic Irani Trophy, the traditional trial for Test selection.

He also batted poorly during the recent Test series in Sri Lanka and was not involved in India's conditioning camp which began on Tuesday in Bangalore.

But the Board of Control for Cricket in India's new selection panel, headed by Kris Srikkanth, has backed him.

Badrinath and Mishra have both played a handful of one-day internationals but are yet to appear in a Test.

India squad: Anil Kumble (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Dhoni, Subramaniam Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh.

(BBC)

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