Canberra, Dec 15: The touring Indian side are scheduled to play two warm-up games to prepare for the tough series against Australia beginning December 26.

On the eve of India’s two-day warm-up game against the Chairman’s XI here, skipper MS Dhoni discussed the team’s preparations and on acclimatising to the trying conditions. Speaking to the media in the team's first optional training session on Wednesday, Dhoni said, "We would like to give our youngsters an opportunity to start off on course. Some of us haven't played much cricket over here," Dhoni said.

"[Conditions are] slightly different, so we try to make the most of it," he added.

Stressing on the importance of starting on a winning note the Indian captain said, "The first game is always [key]; if you have momentum on your side, it always [builds up]."

"You don't really want to lag behind too much right from the very start […] a good start is very crucial.

"We are here close to 12 days early and if 12 days are not enough, then one month wouldn't be enough. So we have to adapt to the conditions."

Indian squad: MS Dhoni (c), Virender Sehwag (v-c), Ravichandran Ashwin, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, VVS Laxman, Abhimanyu Mithun, Pragyan Ojha, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav

Chairman's XI squad: Ryan Broad (c), Cameron Boyce, Joe Burns, Tom Cooper, Alex Doolan, Peter George, Jake Haberfield, Josh Lalor, Tim Ludeman, Glenn Maxwell, Wes Robinson, Dean Solway