Pup gives pep talk to Australian cricket team

Australia captain Michael "Pup" Clarke has given his batsmen a pep talk in a bid to inspire them to greater deeds after two heavy defeats against India.

Australia have lost by eight wickets and an innings and 135 runs and face a daunting task to win the remaining two matches on India's turning pitches and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Clarke - with 268 runs at 67.00 - is Australia's only specialist batsman averaging over 30 in the series.

The skipper has confirmed he'll move from No.5 into the top four for the third Test in Mohali starting on March 14.

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Coach Mickey Arthur called a training session for Wednesday on the day-five wicket in Hyderabad after India had completed their thrashing of the tourists by lunchtime on day four.

Arthur says the opportunity to have a centre-wicket training session on an authentic day-five pitch, complete with loose soil and footmarks, was too good to pass up.

"We had a chat this morning with our batsmen about forming a partnership, forming a bond, investing in the other batsmen," Arthur said on Wednesday.

"Michael was doing that today.

"When Michael talks, the other players listen because he's so experienced.

"He went out of his way today to make sure that he connected with every batsman and give them every bit of advice that he could to try to help them through their net session today to ultimately make them better players.

"The boys have just trained exceptionally well.

"(They) did a little bit of soul searching last night and the guys have come back strongly this morning so morale is very good."

Coach/selector Arthur said Australia would be silly not to consider changes to their batting line-up for the third Test, with Ed Cowan, David Warner, Phil Hughes and Shane Watson all struggling badly for runs.

Hughes, with 25 runs in two Tests, appears the player most likely to make way, with reserve batsman Usman Khawaja expected to press strongly for a recall.

The Australians will travel to Mohali on Thursday and resume training on Sunday.

Arthur said he'd told his players to look at the example set by India's Chesteshwar Pujara (204) and Murali Vijay (167) who added a record second-wicket stand of 370 in the second Test including 151 in the third session on day two.

"If you're still batting at tea-time, you're going to score a lot of runs. But you need the patience to get to tea," Arthur said.