Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson to be rested ahead of Ashes

Australian captain Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson will all be rested from the three one day matches that follow the current Test series against India.

The duo are arguably Australia's three most valuable players, and they will fly home following the conclusion of the second Test against India at Bangalore in order to freshen up ahead of the Ashes series at home. 

This will also give them maximum time to get used to home conditions again after the jolt of Indian climes. 

"The NSP has decided as part of the ongoing management of Ricky's workload he should not take part in this series. The demands of back-to-back Test matches in tough Indian conditions have been taken into consideration,'' said chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch. 

Queensland's James Hopes and New South Wales' Steve Smith will vie for the allrounder's spot, and big-hitting opening batsman David Warner makes a return to the one-day squad. 

The three-ODI series is from October 17-24.

Squad: 

Michael Clarke (capt), 

Cameron White 

Doug Bollinger 

Callum Ferguson 

Nathan Hauritz 

James Hopes 

Mike Hussey 

Shaun Marsh 

Clint McKay

Tim Paine (wk) 

James Pattinson

Steve Smith 

Mitchell Starc 

David Warner

Doug Bollinger,Mike Hussey finally land in India

Tired Twenty20 duo Doug Bollinger and Mike Hussey straggled into the Australian team hotel on

Tuesday well aware of their extremely narrow window to prepare for the first Test match against India.

Bollinger and Hussey arrived in Chandigarh at the same time

"We'll be right to go, we've got a good couple of days of training coming up and we'll look after ourselves and we'll be fine," said Bollinger.

"We're a little bit tired, it's been a long flight, but we're good and we'll just chill out for a couple of days and make sure we're right to go."

Hussey said it had been strange to see the Australian team arrive in India without him, but was focused on making sure he was right to go by Friday morning at Mohali.

"It's not ideal, but it's the best we can do, we'll just make sure we're really smart the next couple of days and get ourselves prepared as best we can," he said.

"I'm sure we've got good background staff and they'll get us in the best possible shape to get going for Friday.

"The next couple of days we've got to get the head right and get thinking more Test match cricket.