India begin their tour of Australia with a two-day warm-up game against Cricket Australia Chairman's XI in Canberra on Thursday with the focus on acclimatising to conditions ahead of the gruelling Test series beginning later this month. India are high on confidence after their 2-0 and 4-1 wins in the Test and ODI series against the West Indies and they would straightaway get down to the task of getting a feel of Australian conditions which would be very different from what they had faced at home.

The Indian cricket board had sent seven players, including the trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman five days in advance to train in Melbourne and prepare for what would certainly be their last tour of Australia. The remaining players, including skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher landed in Australia on Tuesday and left for Canberra for the first warm-up game.

It is to be seen if India will roll out a star-studded team for the first warm-up match at Manuka Oval, given that there is a threeday game starting on Monday against another CA Chairman's XI boasting of Australian players like David Warner, Usman Khawaja and Phil Hughes. Dhoni, on Wednesday, said the tourists would use the game to introduce the less experienced players to Australian conditions while also aiming for a strong performance to start the tour on a positive note.

"We would like to give our youngsters an opportunity to start off of course, some of them haven't played much cricket over here," said Dhoni. "You don't really want to lag too much behind right from the very start, so going with a good start is very crucial," Dhoni said. "We are here close to 12 days early and if 12 days are not enough then one month wouldn't be enough so we have to adapt to the conditions." One concern though would be the fitness of pacer Zaheer Khan, on whom the Indian team would rely on heavily in the tour in the bowling department.

From what coach Fletcher had said in Chennai before departing for Australia, Zaheer could be rested for the first game and fielded in the second game starting on Monday. Dhoni had also said that remaining injury-free would be crucial, more so after pacers Praveen Kumar and Varun Aaron have been ruled out due to injuries after being named in the touring squad. Most of the batsmen were among the runs in the Test and ODI series against the West Indies with the likes of Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli fresh from impressive shows.

Tendulkar, who is still one short of 100 international tons, was below-par against the West Indies and would be eager to get into his groove before Boxing Day. The same would be the case for Laxman, who was not in the best form against the West Indies. Dravid, who was the stand-out performer against the West Indies and in England, would want to straightaway be in the thick of things.

Teams: India: MS Dhoni (captain), V Sehwag (vice-captain), S Tendulkar, R Dravid, VVS Laxman, G Gambhir, Z Khan, V Kohli, A Mithun, R Ashwin, P Ojha, A Rahane, W Saha, I Sharma, R Sharma, V Kumar, U Yadav. CA Chairman's XI: Ryan Broad (captain), Joe Burns, Tom Cooper, Alex Doolan, Peter George, Jake Haberfield, Josh Lalor, Tim Ludeman, Glenn Maxwell, Joe Mennie, Wes Robinson, Dean Solway