The Australian cricket team is increasingly concerned over the prospect of having to play the third Test in Delhi after the Diwali festival.

As the team arrived in Hyderabad from Jaipur last night for Thursday's four-day first class match against a Board President's XI, fast bowler Stuart Clark fronted for his teammates saying last Saturday's second bomb blast in Delhi's suburb of Mehrauli, which killed a boy and wounded around 25 others, was weighing on the players' minds.

"It is pretty fresh in everyone's mind at the moment," Clark told Sydney radio station 2KY.

"We are still hanging out and waiting to see what will happen, but there is some concern that we are going to somewhere where an explosion has just been. I would be lying if I said there wasn't."

Even as Sachin Tendulkar played down security concerns, saying cricketers were never targeted in India, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday told Cricket Australia that the advice about touring India had not changed despite Saturday's second bombing, which has taken the number of bombings in India to 38 since May, with 125 people killed.

Australia will go into Thursday's match with leg-spinner Bryce McGain a doubtful starter.

Thirty-six year old McGain has never played a Test but was considered the most likely to play, ahead of irregular off-spinner Jason Krejza. However, a shoulder injury suffered while playing for Australia 'A' on the recent tour of India prevented McGain from bowling in last weekend's match against a Rajasthan Academy XI at Jaipur.

But McGain is confident he will play on Thursday in preference to Krejza, despite the fact that the latter's finger spin enabled him to get the ball to spit and turn off the pitch at Jaipur, where he took 3-35.

"I will be playing and can expect plenty of work there," McGain said during a visit to Jaipur's Amber Fort yesterday.

McGain's chances of playing ahead of Krejza stem from the fact that he is believed to have adjusted to Indian conditions better and to the SG balls used on the Australia 'A' tour.

The Indian-made SG balls have a more pronounced seam and change shape quicker than the Australian Kookabura balls.

However, vice-captain Michael Clarke is expected to shoulder a lot of the spin bowling burden in the absence of Andrew Symonds.

"My back has been good, touch wood," Clarke told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"I am training as hard as ever, and that is holding my body in good stead," he said.

The Indian batsmen will do well to remember the hostile potential of Clarke's innocuous-looking spin, which saw him win the match for Australia on debut at the Wankhede Stadium four years ago with an amazing spell of 6-9, and to snatch victory from India's hands in the contentious Sydney Test in January.