Melbourne, Dec 13: The remaining members of the Indian cricket team, led by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, today arrived in Australia for the gruelling Test series starting later this month.
The players, including Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan and coach Duncan Fletcher left Chennai for Australia yesterday.
As soon as they landed in Melbourne, the team left for Canberra on a bus.
India are scheduled to play two warm-up matches against Cricket Australia Chairman's XI at Manuka Oval in Canberra— first on December 15-16 and the second a three-day game from December 19 to 21.
“Different vibe in Australia. Lovin it though! Off to Canberra 3 hour drive. Not good after 13 hours of travelling,” tweeted Kohli.
The batsman even posted a rather tired-looking picture of himself on his account. “ On the way to Canberra!!! Sleepy as you can see,” he wrote.
Seven members of the Indian squad—Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha and Pragyan Ojha—are already in Australia in a bid to get acclimatised to the conditions ahead of the gruelling Test series which begins on December 26.
They had left India on December 8 and were training in Melbourne.
India are scheduled to play four Test matches, beginning from December 26, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, besides two Twenty20 Internationals and a triangular ODI series involving Sri Lanka.
The remaining Test matches are going to be held in Sydney (Jan 3-Jan 7), Perth (Jan 13-Jan 17) and Adelaide (Jan 24 to Jan 28).
