India have called up batting great Sunil Gavaskar to assist its out-of-form batsmen ahead of the Test series against world champions Australia starting on Wednesday.
Gavaskar, the first batsman to score 10,000 runs who has a world record 34 Test centuries to his credit, agreed to a specific request by captain Sourav Ganguly to help the team in the highly-anticipated series.
"I will be with the team for the entire series," Gavaskar, 54, told reporters here.
"I want to talk to the boys at the nets on Tuesday and see what they want. I will take it from there."
Indian batsmen have been in poor form this season which saw the 2003 World Cup finalists lose four successive limited-overs tournaments since August.
Moreover, star batsman Sachin Tendulkar is sidelined for part of the series with a tennis elbow injury.
Indian cricket board official Gautam Dasgupta said the request for Gavaskar had come from the team management after the Champions Trophy in England.