Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly confirmed on Tuesday that this month's Test series against Australia will be his last.

Ganguly made his retirement announcement following Indian training at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, two days before the start of the first Test.

"This will be my last series," Ganguly told reporters.

"Before coming here I spoke to my team-mates and hopefully I will go out with a winning knock."

Following a poor tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year, 36-year-old Ganguly had appeared destined to finish his international career on the sidelines after missing selection for the Rest of India side that contested the Irani Cup against Delhi last month - generally considered a pointer to the squad for the Australian Tests.

But the replacement of the selection panel with a new one saw Ganguly retained in the Test squad.

Ganguly has played 109 Tests, making 6,888 runs at 41.74.

His greatest achievement came as captain of the Indian side that ended Australia's 16-Test match winning streak at Kolkata in 2001, a victory that was followed by another, series-clinching win in Chennai.

Ganguly admitted he hadn't expected to be chosen for a final series.

"To be honest I didn't expect to be picked," he said.

"Once I am I have started preparing, when I was left out of the Rest of India squad, which was a bit surprising, I was training with the Bengal boys."

When asked about the Australians' faltering lead-up to the first Test, Ganguly said tour match form was a notoriously unreliable guide.

"You should never judge any touring team on the basis of a practice game, Test matches are different, practice games are different," Ganguly said.

"As a team you try a whole lot of things in a practice match before you get to Test cricket and this Australian team will be as formidable as those of the past.

"You can say they lack a quality spinner but they have other people who can make up for it."

Indian selection panel chairman Kris Srikkanth lauded Ganguly as "one of the best captains the world has ever produced".

"Sourav Ganguly has been an excellent player," he said. "He has brought so many laurels as captain and player.

"He had a good chat with me and (selector) Narendra Hirwani, he wants a peaceful series without any troubles on his mind.

"I hope he goes out with couple of hundreds."