#INDAvAUS: Aussies ponder over playing 11, no such worries for India

The Australians generally like to announce their playing 11 a day before a Test. But in a move that probably highlighted their state of mind, captain Steve Smith said on Wednesday that they hadn't zeroed in yet on the team for the first Test.

The sense of uncertainty in the Aussie camp is partly due to their team combination and partly due to the pitch at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, which is hosting its first ever Test match.

On Tuesday, the deck had a decent layer of grass covering on it, giving the impression that fast bowlers might be able to extract some bounce off it. But the pitch wore a bare look on Wednesday, and with the sun beating down heavily here at this time of the year, the dry surface underneath the pitch will only get drier in the coming days.

Thus, the surface will take turn fairly early in the game, and that has put the visiting team in a quandary on whether to play with the seaming all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, spinning all-rounder Glenn Maxwell or add the third specialist spinner, Mitchell Swepson.

"We don't have a team as yet," Smith said on Wednesday. "At the moment, the wicket looks incredibly dry for a day before the Test match. So, it will depend on what sort of combination we want to go in with," he added.

The Indians are in no such dilemma, though. They have the luxury of a quality third spinner in Jayant Yadav, who has a Test century to his name as well. The pitch will ensure he gets back into the team straightaway after sitting out of the Bangladesh Test.

"Even in the One-Day games that we have played here, the surface was dry underneath," Kohli said. "This time of the year when the summer comes in, the wicket tends to get slower and lower. We expect it to turn from Day Two or Day Three," he added.