India’s four-Test series against Australia gets under way in Bangalore today and it will be the final time that the men renowned as the bedrock of the national team for more than a decade will take to the field together.

Sourav Ganguly, 36 - who made his Test debut in 1996, the same year as Rahul Dravid, 35, and V.V.S. Laxman, 33 - has announced that he will not be available for selection when England tour in December. Anil Kumble, the captain, who is 38 next week, and Sachin Tendulkar, 35, played their first Test matches as teenagers and do not have many more left in them. Between them, they have more than 600 Test caps.

Kumble has said that this match will be the last time he plays a Test in his home city, although he reacted angrily when pressed by reporters yesterday on whether he will retire after the series. “I will not say yes or no,” the leg spinner said. “I will let you know when I play my last series. Let the players decide when they want to go.” India's two Tests against England are in Ahmedabad and Bombay.

There are some important targets ahead before Kumble and Co can head into a retirement that will probably involve telling astounded future generations of India fans that cricket matches used to last five days rather than three hours. First and foremost, India need to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that they lost 2-1 on home soil in 2004, a margin of defeat that they experienced again last winter in Australia.

For Tendulkar, there is the incentive of passing Brian Lara as Test cricket's leading run-scorer. He needs 77 to go ahead of the man who was his chief rival for the title of the world's best batsman for so long. A further 46 runs would make him the first man to score 12,000 Test runs and help him to open up a daunting gap over the chasing pack, led by Ricky Ponting, with 10,099 runs, and Jacques Kallis, on 9,761. Laxman, if he plays in all four Tests, will become the eighth Indian to reach 100 Tests and Dravid, assuming he bats in this game at No3, will be the first man to play in that position in 100 Tests.

Ponting, the Australia captain, said yesterday that the touring team hoped to take advantage of India being distracted by the retirement of their leading players, not that the brouhaha about Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer retiring hampered Australia when they beat England 5-0 in 2006-07.

“It creates distractions, there's no doubt about that,” Ponting said. “Everyone would have wanted to talk about Sourav's retirement, so they will be facing that for the next four weeks. Their media will be all over them if we start the first Test well and put pressure on them.”

He added that Australia would be looking to use their youthful exuberance in the field to force mistakes from the older home team. “I really think we can create pressure on them with our intensity in the field at different times and make them look past their use-by date,” Ponting said.

Only Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Simon Katich and Michael Clarke of the Australia XI have played a Test in India and whether Australia choose to give a first cap to Cameron White, the leg-spinning all-rounder, or Jason Krejza, the off spinner, the home team will have vastly the more experienced slow attack, with almost 1,000 Test wickets when Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag's part-time efforts are added to the records of Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

How Ponting handles the spinners could decide the series. His average of 12.28 from eight Tests in India is a lot lower than his overall average of 58.37 and in 13 of the 14 times he has been dismissed in India, it has been to spin. “It means a lot to me to do well here,” Ponting said. “It's my time to stand up and make sure I score some runs.”