Rohit Sharma and Hanuma Vihari will battle for a place in the Indian team for the first Test.
'No doubt it's their best preparation to be in those exact conditions, playing in probably the strongest domestic T20 tournament in the world.'
A ball-tampering scandal that devastated Australia cast a dark cloud over a dramatic cricketing year
Pandya is undergoing rehabilitation after suffering a lower-back injury during the Asia Cup in Dubai.
The India team sent out a message saying Ashwin was after all to be included in the squad and a decision on whether he played would not be made until the first morning of the match on Thursday.
'India's resilience has got to give up at some stage. They can't keep doing what they've been doing, being so resilient, and tomorrow it might be that day. The last day of the series, potentially playing for another draw, I've just got a feeling that something's got to give. And Australia on the other hand, they know they have to go flat out and give everything to win the series.'
The Sydney Test, apart from being an enthralling battle between the ball and the bat, drew attention for Indian players facing racists remarks.
India were 98 for 2 at close of play on the fourth day of the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday, still 308 runs behind Australia and a full day's batting away from saving the match.
"It's the other end of the spectrum now ... You can't wait just to get out there on the cricket field and running around with your mates, getting stuck into training and playing games."
Steve Smith scored Australia's first century of the series to drive the hosts to 338 all out but India stood firm with 96 for two to leave the third Test in the balance at the end of the second day in Sydney on Friday.
Gilchrist said home conditions would make Australia hard to beat when the World Cup starts next October.
Paine's batting lineup has been rated the worst Australia has ever, so the bowlers could well be under pressure
Images from Day 1 of the fourth Test between Australia and India, at the Gabba, on Friday.
Images from Day 4 of the third Test between Australia and India, at the SCG, on Sunday.
Dean Elgar scored an unbeaten century but an excellent spell of bowling from Australia seamer Pat Cummins restricted South Africa to 266 for eight at the close of play on the opening day of the third Test at Newlands on Thursday.
'If you're friendly with any Indian player it doesn't mean that you are getting IPL contract'
Josh Hazlewood took five for eight as Australia romped to an emphatic victory by eight wickets inside three days in the first Test at Adelaide Oval on Saturday after skittling India for 36, their lowest innings score in 88 years of Test cricket.
The 31-run victory in Adelaide was India's first series-opening win on Australian soil.
Images from Day 3 of the second Test between Australia and India, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, on Monday.
India will be hoping to repeat their success of two years ago when they registered their first-ever Test series win in Australia, while the hosts would be keen to avenge that loss.
IMAGES from Day 1 of the 5th Ashes Test played between England and Australia on Thursday.
Pakistan seamer Mohammad Abbas destroyed Australia, picking up five wickets in both innings, as the hosts won the second and final Test by a huge margin of 373 runs to clinch the series 1-0.
Denly fell six runs short of his maiden Test century and Ben Stokes made a sparkling 67 in bright sunshine at The Oval to put England in a strong position to level the series at 2-2.
Australian batsmen David Warner and Cameron Bancroft signed up for a limited overs tournament in Northern Territory in July as they look to return to cricket in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal which saw them banned from the national team.
As Steve Smith and David Warner padded up at suburban Sydney cricket grounds over the weekend, the warm spring sunshine may have seemed fitting weather for the banned Australian cricketers to take a small but important step in their rehabilitation.
IMAGES from the ICC World Cup match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, in Bengaluru, on Thursday.
Australian media can't have enough of 'miracle man' Stokes after Headingley thriller, compare him to Ian Botham.
Though Smith is absolutely free to make a return to the national team for next year's World Cup and Ashes series in England, he can only fill back the leadership role in March 2020.
The ICC's rating is presumably due to the uneven bounce that became more prevalent later in the recently-concluded second Test between Australia and India.
Ricky Ponting believes the hosts will hold an edge over India in the second Test at the Perth
Usman Khawaja scored 75 runs to lead an Australia fightback on the third day of the second Test against South Africa at St George's Park, but succumbed just before close of play after seeing the tourists cancel out a first innings deficit.
ICC's proposal to introduce four-day Tests has met with stiff opposition
CCTV footage from the players' tunnel at Kingsmead showed Australia vice-captain David Warner and South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock involved in a fiery exchange as players climbed the stairwell to their dressing rooms during the tea break.
Agarwal, thrusted into the squad following failure of KL Rahul and Murali Vijay, responded with a 76-run knock off balls, sorting out India's opening woes to some extent.
Bandon Mein Tha Dum is about a team that hits rock-bottom, loses key players, has its global reputation shrink overnight, but despite all the setbacks, pulls off one of the greatest comeback victories in the history of international cricket, applauds Shailesh Karkera.
On the back of some great all-round performance, Australia thumped New Zealand by 247 runs to win the Boxing Day Test and take a 2-0 series lead. Images from Day 4 of the Boxing Day Test played at the MCG on Sunday.
The 2-0 whitewash by Tim Paine's side, Pakistan return home with more regrets than highlights.
Australia opener David Warner believes India's Rohit Sharma has the firepower to surpass West Indies great Brian Lara's record 400 not out in a Test match.
'They have tried too hard to be that stereotypical Australian team that are aggressive and go hard at people.'
While ODI captain Aaron Finch said the team backed Justin Langer "100%", reports of players being put off by the coach's "grumpy" temperament have continued to surface.
