Ishant played last day of the practise match to prove his fitness

The final day of the drawn three-day warm-up game here at the Manuka Oval between Indians and the Cricket Australia (CA) Chairman's XI turned farcical as Ishant Sharma, who was not even in the 13-man squad, bowled to prove that he is on track to lead the attack on Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
The Indian team management requested Chairman's XI to allow Ishant bowl on the final day here Wednesday. Ishant wasn't included in the original 13-man squad to play at Manuka Oval because of his ankle injury.
Ishant's inclusion became a farce and to add to it three nonsensical declarations on the final day ensured it will be a hard to explain in the record books.
David Warner's Chairman's XI declared their first innings at 215 for seven overnight, meaning they trailed India's first innings score of 269 by 54 runs.
India declared at 90 for two after Virender Sehwag (8) and Ajinkya Rahane departed in quick successions. Gautam Gambhir remained unbeaten on 42 and Rohit Sharma on 38.
Set a target of 145 to win, Usman Khawaja and Phil Hughes, motivated by their axings from the Test side, gave the Chairman's XI a good start. But surprisingly both the teams decided to end the match when Chairman's XI were 100 for no loss and with nearly two hours of play left. Khawaja made 56 not out and Hughes an unbeaten 42.

Australia series is much different: Gautam Gambhir

While expressing happiness over India's 4-1 series win against the West Indies here on Sunday, stand-in captain Gautam Gambhir cautioned that the forthcoming tour of Australia would be a 'different ball game' that will put to test both the technique and mental toughness of the players.
'It always helps to get runs under your belt, but in Australia, those are different conditions. We all know this is not what we are going to get in Australia. The Australians are tough nuts to crack and will come hard at us,' he said at a post-match media interaction here after India beat the West Indies in the fifth and concluding game.
'In Australia, your mental toughness will be tested the maximum. You will be getting a quality attack and they will be coming hard at you. I think one good thing is the guys that have gone early (to Australia) will be able to acclimatise (to the conditions). And we're playing two practice games this time,' he said.
Gambhir also sought to play down his captaincy record of six wins out of six by saying that he was only as good as the teams he had.
'I'll stick to the saying that the captain is as good as his team. One captain can't win you the game; it is still 11 people on the park. I am lucky to have such teammates, during the series against New Zealand, I was lucky to have Yuvraj Singh. Today the team-mates stood up and delivered,' he asserted.