Ganguly

BANGALORE, India (AP):

FORMER INDIA Test captain Sourav Ganguly announced yesterday he will retire from Test cricket following the four-match series against Australia.

"The series against Australia will be my last. I've decided to quit after the four Tests," Ganguly said ahead of the opening Test match which starts tomorrow in Bangalore. "I'd told this to my teammates before coming here."

India's most successful captain with 21 Test wins, Ganguly was included in the squad for the first two Tests against Australia after being left out of the showpiece domestic Irani Trophy match, the traditional trial for Test selection.

Indifferent form

The 36-year-old Ganguly, who has scored 6,888 runs in 109 Tests at an average of 41.74, had been in doubt for the series due to his indifferent form during the recent Test series in Sri Lanka.

"I wasn't expected to be picked for this series," Ganguly said. "Now, I hope to go out with a winning knock."

Starting with two centuries against England in 1996 in his first two Tests, Ganguly has totalled 15 hundreds with a highest score of 239, made against Pakistan at Bangalore last year.

Omitted

Ganguly led India to the final of the 2003 World Cup. He has scored 11,363 runs in 311 one-day internationals, but no longer features in the country's limited-over squad as selectors pick younger players ahead of the 2011 World Cup.

India's selectors have banked on Ganguly's experience despite scoring only 96 runs in three Tests against Sri Lanka.

"The pressure's always there," Ganguly said. "There are different players coming in. We had the same experience when we started, that's how it goes."